President Cyril Ramaphosa will on 23 June 2020 host the inaugural Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium of South Africa (SIDSSA) to unveil an infrastructure pipeline for six priority sectors.

In preparation for the symposium, a market sounding exercise, in the form of pitch sessions, will be held on Thursday, 28 May and Friday, 29 May.

The pitch sessions will give project sponsors an audience from national and international funding institutions, which include multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, asset managers and commercial banks to present infrastructure projects that have been identified as potentially bankable and those that require project preparation funding.

“Government recognises that infrastructure investment is a critical driver for the future growth of the South African economy.

“South Africa requires a catalytic kind of infrastructure investment that will contribute to higher long-term growth, and address spatial disparities, transform the economy and create much needed jobs,” said the Presidency.

The infrastructure projects included in the pitch sessions will form part of the infrastructure pipeline focusing on the network industries of water, transport, energy and digital infrastructure as well as sectors with high job absorption capacity such human settlements, agriculture and agro-processing.

The SIDSSA is a culmination of a meeting convened by President Ramaphosa in February this year, which brought together business associations, line ministries and financial institutions. 

The Investment and Infrastructure Office in the Presidency, headed by Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has since established the SIDSSA platform, drawing in sector specialists, technical and financial structuring experts, and policy departments that have considered 177 infrastructure projects across public and private sectors.

The market sounding exercise this week will unpack some of these projects. 

According to the Presidency, the unveiling of a credible infrastructure pipeline at SIDSSA is a direct response to the decline in infrastructure spend in recent years. Currently, infrastructure spend amounts to 13% of total spend. This needs to grow to 30% by 2030 to achieve the NDP growth targets.

“The economic headwinds exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic have created an opportunity for key role players in the infrastructure space to stimulate the economy through infrastructure investment.

“Optimistically, the SIDSSA process will help the country to enhance its prospects of successfully accessing the reservoir of liquidity,” said the President’s office. The SIDSSA process is also set to lift the preparation and packaging of unfunded projects to emerge with a fundable project pipeline, and define the roadmap towards the revision of the country’s infrastructure plan.