S. African business leaders confident of growth in 2017

Thirty-three percent of South African CEOs surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), an international accounting firm, believe their companies will perform better this year, and over 91 percent are confident of growth in the next three years.

China was seen as the most important country for their organizations' overall growth prospect, with 36 percent of the respondents thinking so, followed by Briton, the United States and India, PwC said Tuesday in a report.

The CEOs also expressed their concern about the exchange rate volatility, uncertain economic growth, regulation, skill shortage, volatile energy cost, cyber threat and the speed of technological change.

They also raised concern about social instability and geopolitical uncertainty.

According to the survey, the majority of African CEOs want to expand their companies in the next 12 months, but operate at lower costs. They are planning to build new strategic alliances or joint ventures.

Technology is the major driver for enterprises' growth and will continue to do so for the next five years, the survey quoted the business leaders as saying.

The majority of the industrial captains believe globalization had, to a large extent, helped with universal connectivity and facilitated the move of capital, people, goods and information.

Meanwhile, the CEOs are wary of the risks associated with the social media and cybersecurity breaches. Endi