From Eskom to training - key quotes from Ramaphosa's roundtable with Merkel

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday addressed South African and German business people at a roundtable discussion in Pretoria.

The president was alongside German chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel is on an official visit to SA this week, and the two were involved in high-level talks aimed at furthering the relationship between the two countries.

Merkel's arrival was greeted with much pomp and ceremony, including a red carpet and a 19-gun salute.

Issues such as clean energy, foreign investment and skills training formed part of the president's address.

Here are five key quotes from his speech:

Foreign investment 

“We agreed that there is a need for German businesses to deepen its presence in SA and expand operations and that we should co-operate to see greater levels of German investment. I have made addressing the high youth unemployment in our country a foremost priority of this administration.”

Economic reform 

“We are taking clear and decisive measures to ensure policy certainty and reduce the cost of doing business. We are committed to regulatory efficiency, legislative reform, fiscal consolidation and pursuing prudent macroeconomic policies.”

Skills training 

“Germany has one of the most admired and successful skills training systems in the world. And we look forward to finding ways to learn from each other's experiences and build world-class skills development systems for young people in SA.”

Eskom 

“We are focused in particular on measures to ensure the stable supply of electricity, including the accelerated introduction of new generating capacity by independent producers. We are working with the leadership and management of Eskom to stabilise its finances and achieve a sustainable business model.”

Clean energy 

“Low carbon growth that is climate change resilient is a fundamental tenet for our National Development Plan and we look eagerly to the enhanced collaboration between local companies and their counterparts in Germany in rolling out appropriate technologies in pursuit of that objective.”