South Africa’s Cabinet has taken note of the feedback from Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to the President on the progress of consultations with the private sector and labour on ways to grow the economy.
President Jacob Zuma had asked Gordhan to lead engagements with these social partners to map out a strategy and come up with measures for growing the economy and preserving the country’s credit rating.
“The Cabinet is pleased that this work has culminated in concrete initiatives that will improve the country’s economic prospects,” Acting Minister in The Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told a post-Cabinet media briefing here Thursday.
On Monday, the president announced several priority initiatives, including a joint private and public sector fund for small business support; addressing constraints to increasing investment in order to accelerate inclusive growth; government and private sector co-investing in infrastructure, drawing on the experience of the successful Independent Power Producer (IPP) Programme, and strengthening State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to ensure their financial sustainability and reinforcing their role in driving development.
“These announcements are testament to what this country can achieve when all social partners come together to work towards the same goal,” the Minister said.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet remains confident that the government’s aggressive fiscal consolidation, the historic 1.0 trillion-Rand (about 66.45 billion US dollars) collection by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the recently announced five short-term interventions, all complement the Nine-Point Plan to ensure a turnaround in South Africa’s economic fortune.
“The increased revenue collection by the SARS will further enable government to deliver services that will improve the quality of lives of all its citizens,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The Cabinet has also welcomed the announcement by rating agency Moody’s Investor Services re-affirming the country’s credit rating at two notches above sub-investment grade.
In affirming the rating, Moody’s noted that South Africa was approaching a turning point after years of weak growth and the aggressive consolidation measures in the 2016 budget will stabilise government debt to gross domestic product (GDP) in the current year.
“All parties are agreed that collaborative efforts need to be strengthened to give impetus to the economic recovery. We also note that the Minister of Finance’s work with social partners includes a credit ratings work stream that will identify potential reforms and interventions to preserve South Africa’s strong capital markets and investment grade credit rating,” the Minister said.
SOURCE: NAM NEWS NETWORK