President Cyril Ramaphosa aims to market South Africa as an investment destination and trade partner during the G7 Summit taking place in Biarritz, France.

Ramaphosa arrived in Biarritz on Sunday and is accompanied by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor and Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.

"The working visit will also provide a platform for President Ramaphosa and members of Cabinet to invite global partners to experience South Africa as an investment destination and trade partner, and to participate in the country's efforts to secure faster, sustainable and inclusive economic growth and reduce unemployment," the Presidency said in a statement.

In 2018, South Africa was invited to attend the G7 summit in Canada after a seven-year absence.

This year's G7 Summit is focused on the elimination of inequalities - social, economic, environmental and in other dimensions - globally.

The G7 is a forum of seven countries with the world's most industrialised and developed economies - France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada - whose government leaders meet annually to discuss important global economic, political, social and security issues.

The summit is structured into three tracks: G7 and Africa Partnership (South Africa, Rwanda, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Senegal and the Chair of the African Union Commission); G7 and four Biarritz Partners (South Africa, India, Australia and Chile), and G7 and all partners.

The Presidency noted that South Africa's participation in the 2019 G7 Summit is guided by four strategic foreign policy pillars:

advancing national interest to attain domestic objectives;enhancing the African Agenda and promoting Africa's sustainable development support;influencing a reformed global multilateral architecture; and advancing the agenda of the South by strengthening South-South Cooperation and North-South Dialogue.

The G7 conference will be followed by a working visit to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V11).

Ramaphosa will be attending the TICAD V11 from August 28-30.

The TICAD V11 conference will focus on science, technology and innovation human resource development and education, the oceans economy, climate change and disaster risk reduction, and agriculture.