The minister of finance, Pravin Gordhan, who travelled to London with Zuma and a large business delegation, said he had been greatly encouraged by the confidence shown in South Africa's economy and its economic management.
"We have had an extremely positive and enthusiastic response. They trust us as a government and they trust the kind of economic management that we've been able to display both in the past and now," he told Business Times by telephone.
Gordhan said there was huge investor enthusiasm for the phased procurement programme proposed in the industrial policy action plan launched last week. The "fleet procurement" scheme involves large orders guaranteed over several years, but contractually linked to the transfer of skills and capacity to South Africa so that later tranches are manufactured locally.
Gordhan said he had raised concerns about the World Bank loan in a London interview with the Bloomberg news agency to express disappointment at sudden climate-related conditions that some unspecified governments wanted to impose on the country's first World Bank loan. He said developed countries needed "to recognise that economic development is crucial to developing countries and that the only option open to them is to build coal-fired power stations in the short term".
He said South Africa had played a central role in reaching the compromise that rescued last year's climate summit in Copenhagen, and had agreed to pursue reduced carbon emission targets and to invest in clean technologies.
"I am a lot more encouraged by both direct and indirect conversations that I have had about the prospects of this loan and we look forward to it going through the World Bank process," he said.
Gordhan said that in London Zuma had successfully allayed concern about mine nationalisation in South Africa.
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