Ground Floor Sheila O'FlanaganWalking through the financial district of Johannesburg last week I couldn't help recalling the day our company first moved into the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin's docklands and the feeling of optimism that went along with being part of a change in the way the Republic saw itself as a modern economy.
A few years earlier the docklands had been a deserted, run-down area of the city. Now it symbolised a different type of Ireland.
We may not have foreseen the explosion in the price of a cup of coffee in the city, but we knew that there were opportunities to make the Republic a player on the world economic stage.
That same level of optimism is evident in the streets of South Africa now as the country moves on from its past and tries to embrace a new future.
The buzzwords on the street are the same as the ones we've used so much ourselves - education, opportunity, growth - and, although by no stretch of the imagination can you suppose that everyone feels that they have the same access to these things, you know that aspirations are not limited by opposition to them.
I sipped a latte in an Italian restaurant close to the towering building which houses Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and thought that I could have been in any financial city in the world - although the coffee was significantly cheaper than in Dublin.
People were excited about the imminent re-entry of Barclays Bank into South Africa. Until it left the country in 1986 as a result of student boycotts during the apartheid regime, Barclays was South Africa's biggest bank.
Its return to the continent, by way of a 60 per cent stake in Absa, South Africa's fourth-largest bank, is viewed by many in business as being a major boost to investor confidence in the region and it's the latest foreign direct investment deal in the country.
General Motors recently announced a $100 million (€81 million) investment to finance production of the Hummer SUV there and Belgian-owned Sander International Textiles has invested in a development project near Port Elizabeth on the Cape.
When you drive around South Africa you're struck by the number of sports cars and utility vehicles clogging up the streets (although there are, perhaps, more valid reasons for having an SUV in a country with vast tracts of uninhabited areas than in downtown Dundrum).
In Johannesburg, the terrible traffic is used as an excuse for everything although, quite honestly, they don't know what terrible traffic is since there is absolutely nothing that resembles the M50 toll bridge!
However, they're embracing the love affair with the car. Sales in 2004 were up 22 per cent and first-quarter sales in 2005 rose 23 per cent compared with the same period last year.
The motor industry is a major contributor to the economy and now Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, Nissan, Tata (an Indian car-maker) and DaimlerChrysler all have a South African presence with plans to grow.
South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) is 25 per cent of the entire GDP of the continent. Industrial output is 40 per cent and mineral production is 45 per cent. All reports on the stock market also include the levels for gold and platinum.
During my visit, the JSE had reached record levels, up 8.8 per cent for the year to date and people were feeling good about it.
Meanwhile, the South African government reassures investors that it will manage the economy prudently and that national debt will continue to be reduced from its current anticipated level of 37 per cent of GDP. In 1997 it was 48 per cent.
It all sounds so familiar. The government talks of a young population (the median age is just under 24 compared with the Republic at just under 34) and rapid improvements in communications and technology.
House prices are booming. There was a lot of talk in Cape Town about a proposed development along the coastline by "Irish builders". And the newspapers are full of stories complaining that first-time house buyers are being priced out of the market. Urban professionals of all races either have to move significant distances out of town and commute or continue to live with their parents.
People talk about "greedy" developers while, at the same time, wishing they had the opportunity to purchase a few houses themselves because they reckon that property is a sure thing. First-time buyers were around 50 per cent of the market five years ago, now they're a mere 10 per cent while investors make up 70 per cent.
The soaring house prices have spawned that other familiar set of cautionary articles headed "Is this the time to purchase a residential property?" Commentators are warning that interest rates can rise as well as fall and that rental income is starting to decline in some areas of the country. However, caution has fallen on deaf ears and the skyline is dotted with cranes and billboards for "dream homes".
I asked my companion if she believed that the new, commercial South Africa had a future and whether all races felt that they had the same opportunities. Ten years earlier, because of her race, she probably wouldn't have had her job. She acknowledged that there was still progress to be made but was confident that the country would continue to grow economically and that its diverse communities could work together with a common purpose.
Then she and her Afrikaaner colleague brought me to lunch at an "African experience" type of restaurant, where we sat outdoors despite the weather. At this time of the year the evenings are short and the temperature is falling. With lowering clouds, rustling leaves and a possibility of rain, the climate was relentlessly Irish despite our geographical location.
We talked about the weather, job opportunities, house prices and the fact that one of them had finally got a foot on the property ladder. Then we ordered coffee. I hadn't the heart to tell them that very soon lattes would be twice the price.
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