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At a time when we face widening socioeconomic disparities and a convergence of crises in the form of climate change, energy insecurity, global supply chain disruptions, inflation shocks and rising debt burdens, never has the world more urgently needed large-scale investments.
And yet the public budgets and global co-operation to confront the crises and keep up with technological, environmental and infrastructure advancements are declining. Europe is the exception. While others are stepping back, we remain the world’s largest provider of development finance. Close to half of all official development assistance globally comes from Europe.
Since 2021, we have already mobilised more than €300bn (R5,7-trillion) and we are confident that we can surpass €400bn by 2027.
Despite this success, the reality is that individual countries and public money alone cannot overcome these challenges and close the investment gap.
Europe’s answer to this investment paradox is the Global Gateway, Europe’s external investment strategy launched in 2021. Unlike traditional, donor-recipient aid programmes, Global Gateway focuses on high-quality investments for mutual benefit.
What sets Global Gateway apart is scale, focus and the reliability of Europe as a partner. Financing is leveraged through Team Europe, bringing together the economic powerhouses of the EU’s 27 member states to mobilise private-sector capital, technology and participation to bring about innovative solutions.
Global Gateway is built on a simple idea: you have to be strategic and focused to deliver real impact. That is why we focus on the value chains that will define economic growth this century — sustainable raw materials, clean energy, digital infrastructure, transport, or pharmaceuticals.
And what makes our projects deliver lasting development is our humancentric approach: training, education, sound governance, enforceable environmental standards, and a genuine commitment to create local jobs and processing capacities to keep local value in our partner countries — not ship them out without it.
Africa is Europe’s closest neighbour, a strategic partner, and at the heart of Global Gateway’s high-quality investments. One example is our work with African partners to strengthen their local pharmaceutical systems and manufacturing capacity.
This is a landmark public-private financing effort designed to strengthen the continent’s health security and vaccine self-reliance.
Launched in 2021 and having mobilised more than €2bn already in investments to date, it is boosting vaccine production, research and skills in South Africa as well as Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal.
This is done by derisking investment in local pharmaceutical and biotech companies and tightly aligning with local strategies and priorities. Building on this, I signed last month in Washington DC an agreement, together with the European Investment Bank and International Finance Corporation, to support Cape Town-based pharmaceutical company Biovac to develop Africa’s first end-to-end multi-vaccine manufacturing facility.
This is a landmark public-private financing effort designed to strengthen the continent’s health security and vaccine self-reliance.
With South Africa, we are doubling down on our strategic partnership, a mature relationship that is predictable, reliable and based on trust. We are following through on the €11.5bn Global Gateway Team Europe Investment Package, which was unveiled last year by European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In South Africa, the investment package is delivering. Project pipelines are building across the sectors that matter, and concrete deals are being signed.
Examples include our recent R66m investment into Green eFuels Producers to develop South Africa’s first wastewater-to-green-methanol plant, a basic feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel, for which South Africa has the potential to become a global hub; and our almost R7bn investment in Transnet to support rail modernisation, port efficiency and freight decarbonisation.
Starting tomorrow, a first-of-its-kind EU investment roadshow will visit Johannesburg (June 1), Cape Town (June 3) and Durban (June 5). It is an innovative event, which brings together European and South African investors, companies, financial institutions and project promoters around concrete, high-potential business and investment opportunities. Around 250 South African and European companies will pitch their projects and have one-to-one meetings with investors to unlock capital, technology and know-how.
- Síkela is EU commissioner for international partnerships. The EU investment roadshow is the Global Gateway in action: mutual benefit, sustainable investments and reliability
