SA brand worth R500bn - govt

Delivering the budget vote of the Government Communication and Information System in parliament on Tuesday, Pahad said that a brand equity study first conducted in 2003 valued the South African Brand at R379.5bn.

Government news agency BuaNews quoted Pahad, saying: "Because of the work done by the International Marketing Council (IMC) to elevate awareness of the country, the value attached to Brand South Africa today is R516.6bn."

This valuable imprint on popular consciousness - which is what an established brand represents - coincides with a move by the IMC to extend the SA country brand formula from the borders of the United Kingdom and the United States to India, an emerging economic giant.

The IMC has brought about a sharper international profile of SA with its global image now less centred on it as a newly-liberated country.

Pahad said the increase in GCISs budget to R375m is due to the expansion of its operations as well as those of the IMC and the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA).

The IMC, he added, has in the past year been registered as a public entity and has forged a close working relationship with the department of trade and industry (dti).

In 1998 South Africa's growth domestic product (GDP) stood at just 1%.

Now, GDP is officially hovering at around 5% but some market watchers, believe government's target of 6% GDP by 2010 has already been achieved.

Speaking at an imbizo in Mitchell's Plain on Tuesday morning, ahead of the budget vote, Pahad said: "Some of us think, including the president, that actually our economy is growing much faster than the official statistics demonstrate.

"In my view we are beyond 6%," Pahad told a group of residents from the area.

He added that more foreign direct investment is needed, especially in manufacturing, along with increased value-addition, for more jobs to be created but the climate has been created for this. - BuaNews