Pretoria – The South African government can no longer rely on traditional trade relations with global economies to boost economic growth and create jobs.
In a statement on Tuesday, National Treasury said this was one of several issues that the government was already addressing, after they were raised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following its recent assessment of SA’s economy.
The assessment on SA’s economy was released when the IMF published its Article IV following its consultations with South Africa between 22 May and 4 June this year.
“The issues raised by the IMF report are indeed issues that are already captured in government policies and programmes. At its lekgotla in August, Cabinet agreed on a number of measures aimed at reigniting economic growth.
“These measures are in part informed by the recognition that the South African economy can no longer rely heavily on the global economy to reignite growth and create job opportunities for the millions of unemployed South Africans,” National Treasury said.
It said that the August Cabinet Lekgotla also agreed to shift the focus of the government, business and labour to be biased towards the accelerated implementation of domestic plans to grow the economy in an inclusive way and also to create jobs, as well as to seize opportunities in the region.
“One of these issues is the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) which government believes will make a significant contribution to the longer term effort to address both historical and new challenges confronting the South African economy.
“Responding to issues of domestic political economy, as well as the effort to improve performance in the public sector is an ongoing process requiring a wide range of measures and interventions. Actions are being taken to improve labour relations in key sectors and administrative structures and processes are being strengthened towards improved service delivery and public accountability.”
Measures that the government was focusing on, with the aim of boosting economic growth, include:
- resolving the energy constraint;
- increasing investment in infrastructure;
- improving the regulatory environment;
- stimulating agricultural development;
- increasing the prospects for youth employment; and
- intensifying support for the development of small business.
– SAnews.gov.za
