[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

24 November 2004

Master of ceremonies
Members of the Executive Council
Heads of department
Representatives of business
Trade union leaders
Leaders of civil society
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

In 1997, the Gauteng Provincial Government adopted an industrial strategy relevant to the challenges faced by the province. This strategy has been implemented since then, but with more vigour from 2000 with the establishment of Blue IQ, targeted at the necessary infrastructure required to assist specific sectors and areas in Gauteng.

In 2003, the Gauteng Provincial Government revised the strategy taking into account the challenges faced by the province, especially that of poverty and unemployment as well as the role that could be played by SMMEs to meet these twin challenges. The strategy we are presenting today seeks to consolidate the work we have already done, while making the necessary adjustments to meet new challenges as well as changed economic and social conditions.

Following the 2004 national and provincial elections, we have unveiled the five year programme which will see our province becoming an even better place. The main objectives of the programme are stimulating a faster growing economy and employment, development of skills, healthy and productive people, building safe and sustainable communities, deepening democracy and nation building, and building an effective and caring government.

Our programme is based on the commitments that we made during the election campaign to work together with our people in a people's contract to create work and fight poverty in Gauteng.

We made these commitments because we understood very well the challenges that faced our country as we entered the second decade of freedom. We knew that we had to work hard to overcome the challenges of unemployment, lack of skills, poverty, homelessness, underdevelopment, illiteracy and disease.

Our experience during the first decade of freedom gave us hope that while the challenges of the second decade were immense they were not insurmountable. The impressive achievements that we made in the face of many difficulties and obstacles gave us confidence that we would overcome the challenges and build a much better Gauteng in which all residents enjoy a better quality of life.

One of the most important factors that contributed to our successes during the first decade is the partnership that was formed between government and the people. Such a partnership recognised the roles of different sectors and groups in the socio-economic transformation that was unfolding.

As government we have had time to reflect on the commitments that were made by the ANC during the elections and identify our role in their fulfilment.

Our five year programme gives real meaning and effect to these commitments.

It outlines the important steps that the Gauteng Provincial Government will take to fulfil its commitment to build a better Gauteng and contribute towards building a better South Africa.

As has been proven during the past decade, the success of this programme will require participation by all stakeholders - government, business, workers, professionals and organisations representing women, youth and other sectors.

We have convened this summit - the Gauteng Growth and Development Summit - to create a platform for us as government and other stakeholders to agree on a broad framework for growth and development in our province.

I suppose the various stakeholders represented at this summit have come here because they all share the vision of building a better Gauteng and are committed to work together in partnership to overcome the challenges of poverty, unemployment, skills development, homelessness, underdevelopment and many other challenges.

In response to these challenges, the Gauteng Provincial Government has put in place strategies to combine the existing trade and industry strategy, the Gauteng integrated development plan and municipal IDPs into a broad framework within which all of us can work together to contribute towards achieving the national goal of halving unemployment and poverty.

The Growth and Development Strategy, while recognising the leadership role of government in achieving growth and development, acknowledges the role of other stakeholders in this important task. The GDS seeks to galvanise the energies and resources of all sectors of society in Gauteng to work together towards integrated and sustainable development.

The Growth and Development Strategy is not a new policy document. It provides a broad framework, approach and tactics for all stakeholders to develop their own activities and programmes to achieve the common goal of creating work and fighting poverty. It outlines specific things that Gauteng can do to achieve high levels of economic growth which must drastically reduce unemployment and poverty. It seeks to change where necessary the way policies have been implemented especially in relation to strategies to grow the economy, create sustainable jobs and respond to the mismatch between existing skills profile and the skills required for the success of the Gauteng economy.

We all know that the national government has set targets of reducing unemployment and poverty levels by half within the next ten years. Our province's unique status as the country's economic hub and the most urbanised and industrialised area places more responsibility on us to do more towards meeting the target of halving unemployment and poverty.

If we all agree with the principle that economic growth is a prerequisite for poverty eradication and overcoming other challenges, then Gauteng has an even greater responsibility to contribute towards the achievement of overall higher growth rates for the country so that we meet our national target of halving unemployment and poverty levels within the next ten years.

It is a known fact that we are the economic hub of our country contributing more than a third of the country's GDP.

While the current economic growth rates are impressively high, especially in comparison to the shambles that we inherited in 1994, the number of jobs created has not been concomitant with the number of people entering the job market. According to Statistics South Africa, Gauteng's unemployment figure at September 2003 stood at 28.2%.

We have to grow the economy at much higher rates than the current rates to meet our goal of drastically reducing unemployment and poverty levels. The Growth and Development Strategy provides a practical framework to substantially raise Gauteng's average Gross Geographic Product growth rate even higher and to provide sustainable jobs over the next decade.

The Growth and Development Strategy identifies specific undertakings that the Gauteng Provincial Government has to make to ensure that economic growth benefits the broader society, leading to the achievement of our developmental objectives.

The Gauteng Provincial Government will focus on the following areas to achieve the objectives of growth and development:

* SMME development and support
* Skills development
* Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment
* Promotion of growth sectors
* Local economic development
* Integrated infrastructure development

We are committed to the growth and development of the SMMEs. We will support the SMMEs in Gauteng by providing business management training and facilitating access to finance and markets, amongst other endeavours.

Work is already underway in the department of Finance and Economic Affairs to establish the Gauteng SMME portal to provide business support and advice to all small, medium and micro enterprises in the province. The portal will work with municipalities and other provincial and national agencies that have been created to support the SMME sector.

Although Gauteng has South Africa's finest skills development infrastructure, there is still a skills mismatch in the province which might prove to be an obstacle to economic growth and development. Together with partners in the industry and higher learning institutions we need to identify and facilitate the development of skills that are relevant to the needs of the economy.

Broad-based black economic empowerment is fundamental to economic growth and development. It is the cornerstone of economic empowerment of all black people including women, workers, youth, and people with disabilities and people living in peri-urban areas.

We will make sure that our approach to black economic empowerment contributes to the economic transformation of the country. It must bring about significant increases in the number of black people that manage, own and control our economy.

We will continue to use government's considerable financial muscle to promote growth in the economy and reduce poverty and unemployment. In this regard we are going to implement our affirmative procurement policy more vigorously. Soon we will announce realistic procurement targets within the Gauteng Provincial Government in order to promote BEE. This means that we will focus on how the people we do business with deal with three core elements of BEE, namely:

* Direct empowerment through ownership and control of enterprises' assets
* Human resource development and employment equity; and
* Indirect empowerment through preferential procurement and enterprise development

Through this process and within the guidelines set out in relevant legislation we will encourage enterprises that provide goods and services to the provincial government to contribute to BEE. Our participation in public private partnerships will also be informed by this approach.

Our experience has confirmed the correctness of the approach of identifying and promoting growth sectors to achieve higher growth rates. Together we need to identify sectors that are crucial to the achievement of our goals of growing the economy and creating sustainable jobs.

The nature of our province requires an integrated approach to development. Each of the province's cities and towns have strengths that can contribute to the development of their local areas while at the same time contributing towards the overall growth and development of the province. The combined strengths of our cities and towns if well exploited can contribute towards developing Gauteng into an integrated globally competitive region.

Related to the development of a globally competitive region is the development of integrated infrastructure which responds to the developmental needs of local areas and the province as a whole.

Over the next day and half we will look at the strategy in more depth. All of us will have the opportunity to comment on the various proposals in the strategy and where possible enrich it. The most important objective of the summit must be an agreement by all of us on the vision for growth and development in our province.

We have seen the undertaking that the government is making towards the realisation of the vision. After the summit all the other stakeholders must identify their roles and make similar undertakings as government has done to realise the vision for growth and development.

In government we have structures to monitor and evaluate our policies and programmes. We will use these structures and systems to monitor every aspect of the Growth and Development Summit as we implement it. We will also submit ourselves to the monitoring and evaluation by the people as we have always done with our other policies and programmes. I hope that our partners outside of government will also do the same.

Thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
24 November 2004