South Africa

Adrian Gore’s message to South Africans

Adrian Gore

Discovery CEO Adrian Gore shared an encouraging message to South Africans from the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos.

Gore, along with government officials and other business leaders, was part of a unified government and business delegation that attended the event.

Before leaving for Davos, he said South Africa was in a very different place with the government of national unity and hosting the G20.

He explained that the partnership between the government and business is a unique construct that is getting incredible traction.

At Davos, the delegation promoted the message that South Africa was working through its issues and was on an economic growth path.

During his World Economic Forum visit, Gore offered a message of hope and shared a few things that stood out to him.

The first was the transformation in sentiment around South Africa, both from within the country and from the global business and investment community.

“Ending load-shedding and the partnership between business and government has created a completely different dynamic, which we must capitalise on,” he said.

He added that South Africa’s leadership of the B20 and G20 international forums will also play a key role in this.

The second is the massive effect the United States election has had on global politics, economics, trade, and balances of power.

“The election result brings with it several risks and opportunities in the international landscape. The world is a different place,” Gore said.

The third is technology’s outsized and pervasive influence, from AI to quantum computing, crypto to cybersecurity, and scientific and medical breakthroughs.

Gore said the rapidly changing landscape provides tremendous potential. However, it also comes with risk.

“There are opportunities to rethink how we structure and offer financial services, moving towards a more personalised and consumer-centric approach,” he said.

He said that from a South African perspective, the narrative and the receptivity are completely different from previous years.

“The end of load-shedding and the partnership between the government and business made a massive difference,” Gore said.

“There is a sense of a different emerging South Africa. The big institutional investors see a different South Africa.”

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