Black Industrialists Indaba kicks off today

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will this morning open the Black Industrialists Indaba as part of government’s commitment to develop black industrialists in the country.

The two-day Indaba aims to foster dialogue between the public and private sector to advance black industrialists, and to radically transform and restructure the economy to achieve inclusive growth.

Taking place at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, the Indaba also seeks to advance government’s key developmental objectives of industrialisation, skills development, job creation, localisation and supplier development.

This will help create and develop black industrialists and entrepreneurs.

The event is being pursued in support of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (dti) Black Industrialists Development Programme. The programme is intended to promote the participation of black industrialists as manufacturers for the key sectors identified in the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) and other related sectors that will have a huge impact on driving economic growth and development.

This includes the infrastructure components required by the various build projects within the country.

Black industrialists, refer to a black people directly involved in the origination, creation, significant ownership, management and operation of industrial enterprises that derive value from the manufacturing of goods and services at a large scale; acting to unlock the productive potential of our country’s capital assets for massive employment locally.

Dti Deputy Minister Mzwandile Masina, who launched the Black Industrialists Development Programme last year, said the indaba will look at the progress that has been made by the dti on transforming the economy through promotion of industrial development, investment, competitiveness and employment creation in order to achieve inclusive growth.

“The indaba is key to creating and advancing transformation by building on the synergies between the public and private sectors and also creating an environment, whereby there will be economic development activities over two days with participants and entrepreneurs from all nine provinces having exhibition stands to showcase their products and services,” said Deputy Minister Masina.

This indaba will play the critical role of harnessing the thoughts of both government and industry towards a common policy direction on this crucial matter of industrial transformation.

“The recommendations from and outcomes of the indaba will further provide government with a more accurate base of developing products and services that seek to advance sustainable and economically viable black industrialists,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za