President Cyril Ramaphosa says the introduction of a common application form across SA's development funding institutions is one of the measures the government is taking to stimulate businesses.

In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa, who is in London, where he will address the Financial Times Africa Summit on Monday, said: “If we are to create jobs and reduce poverty, we need to grow our economy at a much faster pace.”

Despite the need to cultivate a new crop of home-grown companies, he noted that many entrepreneurs struggled to mobilise capital and access markets. “They also find it difficult and costly to meet the regulatory requirements for starting and running a business.”

The government intended to make business easier for the person starting out in their garage and the multinational looking to open a new factory, said Ramaphosa, adding that the common application form was a step towards this goal.

In addition, he said, “we are making it easier to start a business, register a property, deal with construction permits, pay taxes and trade across borders”.

“To promote greater efficiency, we are reducing the time it takes to grant licences and permits. We are working with business to ensure that the conditions attached to licences are not too onerous or costly.”

These measures to make the SA economy more competitive, he said, “are important not only to business, which is seeking decent returns on investment, but also to unions, who want more jobs and better working conditions, and to communities, who want to see living standards rise.”

The second SA Investment Conference will be hosted in SA next month, as part of Ramaphosa's drive to attract R1.2tn in new investment over five years. The inaugural conference last year raised about R300bn in committed investments, said the president, “but we know that we need far-reaching reforms to achieve our target”.