Boosting investor confidence is critical to positioning South Africa as a premium destination for foreign direct investment.

To assist in achieving this, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies, together with Gauteng Premier David Makhura, on Tuesday launched the InvestSA One Stop Shop (OSS) in Sandton, in a bid to attract more investment to the province.

“South Africa is indeed an attractive destination and government is committed to improving the investment climate and ease of doing business,” Makhura noted on Tuesday.

He urged the investment community to make use of the services the OSS provides, as “South Africa is open for business.”

The objective of the provincial InvestSA OSS is to provide a professional service to all investors through a specialist advisory, to reduce regulatory inefficiencies, as well as to reduce red tape for investors looking to invest in Gauteng.

The provincial OSS investment centres that are being rolled out across all provinces will be used to coordinate and incorporate special economic zones, provincial investment agencies, local authorities and the relevant government departments involved in regulatory, registration, permitting and licensing matters.

“The launch of InvestSA Gauteng OSS is part of a Presidential priority to improve our service delivery to all investors, and is a partnership from national government into the provinces and an excellent model of intergovernmental collaboration between the three spheres of government,” Davies said at the event.

He added that key regulatory and administrative departments and agencies, such as the departments of Home Affairs, Labour, Environmental Affairs and Trade and Industry, as well as agencies such as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, the South African Revenue Services, Visa Facilitation Service and Eskom, besides others, will be in a single location to provide a service to investors.

Also in attendance at the launch were UK Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hand; Gauteng Economic Development, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development MEC Lebogang Maile and captains of industry, investors and senior government officials.