Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is leading a senior National Treasury delegation to represent South Africa at the 2017 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group.
The meetings will get underway on Friday.
Reinforcing inclusive growth and transformation to address inequality, poverty and unemployment are among the main priorities for the Minister and his delegation.
“Employment creation, poverty alleviation as well as advancing economic growth remains a priority for South Africa and the African region. The annual meetings will provide the Minister an opportunity to assess the international economy, and progress on development issues such as poverty reduction,” said National Treasury on Thursday.
The World Bank will be crafting a new five-year strategy for South Africa in 2018, and is now busy with the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD).
The SCD aims to identify the root causes that hold back inclusive growth and job creation, and to propose policy priorities that can accelerate South Africa’s transition toward a more inclusive and prosperous society.
Treasury said the findings will guide priorities for the new World Bank/South Africa Country Partnership Framework, which will be in accordance with the development priorities identified in South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP).
Another priority for the Minister and his delegation, which includes Director General Dondo Mogajane, is meetings with sovereign credit ratings agencies and investors.
Minister Gigaba will meet with the investor community and ratings agencies at the meetings.
“It is important that we continue to engage these stakeholders to discuss interventions on how they can support South Africa’s development process, and to demonstrate our commitment towards addressing their concerns and restoring comfort and confidence through the 14 confidence boosting measures, over and above the country’s potential to chart an inclusive growth and economic recovery programme,” said Treasury.
The G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) will also form part of the delegation’s main priorities at the meeting. The compact nitiative was launched by Germany at the G20 Africa Conference in Berlin in June.
The CwA prioritises investment in infrastructure, which is critical to attract private investment, connect Africa’s regional markets, and better integrate them into global value chains. – SAnews.gov.za
