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Durban - Success breeds success and that is why there was so much foreign interest in South Africa, Yvonne Johnston, the CEO of the International Marketing Council (IMC) told a CEO briefing at the Tourism Indaba 2005 on Saturday.
"Success breeds success and that is why we have employment rising and crime dropping.
That is one of the reasons why short-term insurer Mutual & Federal reported a 25% rise in earnings, as crime-related claims have dropped dramatically.
"South Africa is alive with possibility and as these
possibilities are turned into profitable opportunities, this will in turn stimulate even more opportunities.
"Our research has indicated that a massive 93% of South
Africans are glad they woke up today in South Africa compared with only 54% ten years ago," Johnston said.
The IMC was formed in December 2001 at a time when the rand was trading above R/US$13 and foreign perceptions of South Africa were at a nadir.
Its brief was to change foreign perceptions and encourage reign direct investment and tourism.
The rand has since recovered to below R6 per dollar, in part because of foreign capital inflows and an increase in foreign inbound tourism.
The result is that South Africa's foreign reserves have risen by more than R100bn in the past three years.
This increase in foreign confidence in South Africa has in turn resulted in lower interest rates and rising economic growth with growth expected to exceed 4% this year from 3.7% last year, making South Africa one of the few countries that will see higher growth in 2005 than in 2004.
The high growth and booming domestic demand has then resulted in UK-based banking group Barclays offering to buy a majority stake in South African banking group ABSA.
This deal could result in capital inflows worth some R30bn and
in turn encourage other foreign companies to look at South African companies with renewed interest.
Oil company SASOL with its unique Gas-to-Liquids technology has frequently been mentioned as a target for overseas oil companies, who are sitting on record profits due to the surging oil price.
Russian resources company Norilsk Nikel in March 2004 bought 20% of South African gold miner Gold Fields, while Chinese companies are also interested in investing in South African resource companies.