ABSTRACT
South Africa is an industrialized middle-income country with abundant supply of natural resources. The country has a well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors. The country's modern infrastructure supports a relatively efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout Southern Africa.
Since the early 1990s, economic growth has been driven mainly by the tertiary sector. South Africa is moving towards becoming a knowledge-based economy, with a greater focus on technology, e-commerce, financial, and other services.
The economic impact of the apartheid system has hardly eased, in spite of substantial government efforts to alleviate the situation. Unemployment, poverty, and inequality remain high. South Africa remains a dual economy with one of the highest inequality rates in the world. With prevalent poverty and unemployment, the domestic market is considerably constrained. An industrial market economy is very dependent on a rapidly growing mass domestic market.
Land reform and mass education and training will speed up economic growth and development. South Africa is cooperating with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other regional countries to implement Inga III Power Project and hopefully the Grand Inga Power Complex.
