Abstract
M.Phil.
The role of foreign direct investment, in driving economic growth and development has been a contested one. There have always been views in favour of FDI and against. Foreign investment is attracted by predictable, transparent, non-discriminatory regulations of the host country. Consequently, negative administrative barriers (legal and regulatory requirements for establishing, operating and locating a business) can deter foreign investors.
Administrative processes in South Africa are not consistent, efficient and transparent and they generally interfere with the operation of free markets. Theoretically, foreign investors are likely to invest in countries where administrative processes are consistent, efficient, transparent and high levels of certainty.
This study‘s aims were to identify administrative barriers encountered in South Africa by foreign investor and to ascertain the levels of consistency, efficiency and transparency of administrative procedures. The study further propose solutions aimed at improving the levels of consistency, transparency and efficiency of administrative processes in order to easy, simplify or mitigate the burden of these processes.
The study adopted a positivistic view and descriptive research method was employed. The survey questionnaire was used as the main data-gathering instrument for this study. The study found out that there were high levels of administrative barriers to foreign direct investment in South Africa and the processes were not consistency, efficient and transparent. The main conclusions drawn from this research were that current administrative processes to foreign direct investment are barriers to investment as they add an extra burden and cost to the investor investing in South Africa. This study proposed a multi-pronged administrative simplification strategies aimed at reducing and simplifying administrative processes.