Industrialisation and transformation are at the centre of the Department of Trade and Industry’s efforts to grow the South African economy.
“Our mandate as a department is to build a dynamic, industrial and globally competitive South African economy, characterised by inclusive growth and development, decent employment and equity, built on the full potential of all citizens.
"In line with this mandate, the State of the Nation Address and our Budget Vote, industrialisation and transformation will occupy the centre stage in our work,” said the Department of Trade and Industry’s Director General Lionel October.
October presented the department’s annual performance plan for 2019-2020 to the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour in Parliament on Tuesday.
The Director General outlined key interventions aimed at facilitating the transformation of the economy in order to promote industrial development, investment, competitiveness and employment.
These include growing the manufacturing sector to promote industrial development, job creation, investment and exports, promoting greater policy coherence and certainty and improving the ease of doing business and collaborating with social partners.
“We will also be increasing our efforts to expand the market for the country’s products, promote Africa integration and to position ourselves as an important player in the global economic world. We will strengthen our efforts to build mutually beneficial regional and global relations to advance South Africa’s trade, industrial policy and economic development objectives.”
In addition, the dti will be supporting over 850 companies through its Export Marketing and Investment Assistance Scheme (EMIA) to help companies seek export markets for their value-added products.
This effort will be supported by a series of export awareness workshops that will be held countrywide to prepare companies for the export market in order to increase the number of exporters in the country. –SAnews.gov.za
