South Africa launches visa reform to lure talent, boost economy

South Africa announced a remote work visitor visa and a new points-based system for work visas on Wednesday, aiming to attract talent and investment and grow the country's tourism sector, reported Xinhua.

The remote work visitor visa seeks to lure highly paid individuals who are employed abroad to spend their money in South Africa, eat at South African restaurants, and buy South African goods and services, said the Department of Home Affairs in a statement.

"The department's meticulous attention to detail to ensure that these reforms are fit-for-purpose and market-friendly has resulted in two products that begin to reposition South Africa as a world-class destination for investment and tourism to create thousands of new jobs for South Africans," said South African Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber.

The new points-based system introduces a transparent framework to adjudicate visa applications in order to tackle corruption and cut red tape while delivering on the government's top priority to grow the economy and create new jobs for South Africans, added Schreiber.

Research commissioned by the South African Reserve Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute shows that increasing the share of high-end skilled workers in the South African population by just 0.02 percent can boost annual economic growth by up to 1.2 percent. It also shows that an improved visa regime can create seven new jobs for every additional skilled worker attracted into the economy.