Attributiveness of multinational enterprises from South Africa and their investing activities

The geographic directions of investing activities of multination enterprises (MNE) from South Africa (considering the original preconditions of her transnational corporations - TNC) have been studies. It has been sown that the foreign direct investments (FDI) in African countries are important for South Africa. The adverse effects to attributiveness of foreign operations abroad of TNC, caused by political risk in the end of 20th century, have been outlined. Back then some FDI were facilitated in order to assure the security of assets, and several large TNCs from South Africa relocated there headquarter to Europe. The abovementioned changes have resulted in the liberalization of foreign investing activity regulations and have stimulated the foreign business of South Africa’s MNEs. Nowadays the value of FDI stock, owned by such companies abroad, has significantly augmented, especially in African countries, including her neighbor states. South Africa has shown increased interest in Mauritius as a recipient of FDI, such trend can be explained by importance of the island as a transit point of FDI facilitation on their way to continental Africa. The value of South African FDI in Nigeria has declined sharply, but is still significant in absolute terms. However the oil extracting business in North Africa, Angola, and Democratic Republic of Congo has not been considered to be attractive by South African entrepreneurs. Six MNEs form South Africa are included in the UNCTAD list of 100 top non-financial MNEs from the developing world. One of the top South African MNEs is “Sasol”, the flagship of South African economy, operates in chemical and allied industries. A number of large South African MNEs operate in services, including telecommunications, multimedia content, mass media, Internet-based operations, health care. Such expansion should be considered as a positive trend. The activation of “cross-country” investing activities between Russia and South Africa can positively forecast the opportunities of using the former country as the “gates to Africa.” Such expectations can allow mutually beneficial investment undertakings in Africa, which can be supported by the BRICS and are open to MNEs from its member-states.