Pretoria - Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies will visit the Abagold aqua farming enterprise in Hermanus on Tuesday as part of the “Taking the dti to factories” campaign.
In partnership with Productivity SA, Minister Davies will undertake the visit in order to experience first-hand the benefits of interventions introduced as part of the Workplace Challenge Programme (WPC), which is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti).
The WPC is a 24-month enterprise-based productivity enhancement programme that aims to improve the performance, productivity and competitiveness of South African enterprises and sectors.
This is done through constructive workplace relations, the improvement of workplace practices, facilitating skills development and establishing model companies to disseminate processes and lessons.
“The rationale behind this programme is to help organisations, particularly those in the manufacturing sector, to improve their productivity and competitiveness through collaboration between employers and employees.
“This relates to issues such as developing common goals, implementing improvements that lead to world-class competitiveness and best operating services, encouraging the sharing of productivity gains, as well as engendering collaboration between companies involved in similar processes,” said Minister Davies on Monday.
Minister Davies said projects that exhibit positive spin-offs from the WPC Programme will enhance industrial growth.
“The WPC Programme has been managed by Productivity SA since 2003 when it was handed over from [the] National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) and has assisted approximately 1 140 enterprises, employing over 50 000 employees.
“It is a co-funded programme, in which a small percentage of the total cost of training is paid for by the enterprise and the balance by the dti. This ensures that enterprises remain committed to participation until the end of the training process,” said the Minister.
Export workshop
Meanwhile, dti Director General Lionel October will on Tuesday address the Team Export South Africa (TESA) workshop at the Development Bank of Southern Africa in Midrand.
The workshop, which targets Export Councils from all the provinces, government departments in the three spheres of government as well as stakeholders in the export value-chain, will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“The event is held once a year to discuss current global and local developments that have an impact of growth of exports from the country. The 2016 theme is: Exports as a driver for economic growth and employment,” said the Director General.
He said with the domestic economy projected to achieve less than 1% growth in 2016, growth in exports can provide a stimulus for growth in productive output in some of key targeted sectors that include agro-processing, manufacturing and defence industries.
The workshop is part of the department’s strategy to ensure collaboration between government and business in growing the economy through increasing exports of South African products into other parts of the world. – SAnews.gov.za
