Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says establishing common projects with concrete outcomes, which will benefit all sections of South Africa’s citizens, is key to the future success of the country.
The Minister said this on Thursday when he participated in a debate on the country’s economy under the theme “Building collective action for inclusive growth”.
He said in the past few months, the growing challenge in South Africa’s transformation agenda has brought government, labour and business leaders together.
“We have begun to create a new narrative of support for new enterprises and revitalising agriculture and other sectors of the economy, of investing in our cities, and of private sector participation and collaboration with state-owned companies,” said the Minister.
Minister Gordhan said there is still hard work to come and to be done, which requires strong leadership and a collaborative spirit of government and society.
“The reality is that the economy is not creating enough jobs. Without employment creation, it is very hard to reduce poverty for growth to be inclusive, it must create jobs,” he said.
He said the country’s growth has to be sustainable. He said there is a need for greater investment, employment creation, a sustainable budget deficit, and building plans being completed and processed by municipalities and industrial productivity and competitiveness.
He said all these are monitored by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on investment chaired by President Jacob Zuma.
He said recently, government, labour and business have been working together intensively to help strengthen short term confidence in international investors and reinforce long term growth.
“We have been focusing on three key areas: restoring confidence and boosting investment by local and international investors, unblocking obstacles to fast track employment growth in key sectors of our economy, and identifying fiscal and regulatory reforms in strengthening state-owned entities,” he said.
He said South Africa is open for business. The Minister said the next round of economic reviews will be in December this year, and South Africa will have to work harder to produce more concrete outcomes for the reviews of its economic position.
He said through collaborative efforts, a fund for Small and Medium Enterprises has been established with over R1 billion already committed and complemented by mentoring by seasoned business leaders for start-up business people.
He mentioned tourism and agriculture as sectors that have been identified as quick economic boosters.
With regards to agriculture and state-owned companies, the Minister said options for co-investment have been explored to leverage the strength of the private sector in terms of expertise and balance sheets.
Source: Government Communication and information System