Talk about foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa has become the mode du jour and the South African private sector appears to be putting its money where its mouth is.

Last year South Africa invested in more new FDI projects in Africa than any other country in the world,

and the number of projects from the country has increased by almost 536% in the past decade, according to a 2013 report by FDI Intelligence, a company which provides insights into, and advice on, cross-border investment.

Ernst & Young's 2013 Attractiveness Survey found that South Africa has created almost 46 000 cumulative jobs through foreign direct investment in Africa since 2003.

Last year alone, the number of South African FDI projects increased by 23%. This happened despite 2012's grim global numbers, showing the second-biggest decline in FDI since the start of the recession, according to the FDI Intelligence report.

Last year South Africa accounted for 75 projects, said Charlie Pistorius, an analyst at the Africa Business Centre at Ernst & Young. This made up over 12% of the rest of Africa's FDI total. The capital committed for these projects was about $1.4-billion (R14-billion).

The country's Number 1 position, however, is based on the number of projects committed to rather than the amount of capital invested. If measured strictly by capital invested, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and China had committed more capital than South Africa to the rest of Africa during 2012, said Pistorius.

Project activity
"But these countries had far less project activity," he added. "For instance, India's capital amount was more than four times more, but for only 35 projects; and Canada's 12 projects and China's 28 projects saw capital allocations of $2.8-billion and $2.2-billion respectively."

There is a similar division with regard to FDI activity deployed from the country: the number of projects in a certain sector is not representative of the capital allocated to it.

According to Pistorius, most investments (by project activity) are taking place in the broader service sector, mostly in financial and business services and communication.

These are followed by consumer product groups such as beverages, food and tobacco, and then resource-related projects.

The means of economic activity towards which these investments are deployed reflect internal activity.

"Overall, the trend into Africa follows South Africa's economic activity footprint: manufacturing, support services (sales and marketing and business services), infrastructure-related activities, then extraction and retail," said Pistorius.