Pretoria - Business stands ready to work with government in tackling joblessness.
Reacting to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) made by President Jacob Zuma in Parliament on Thursday, Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) said the address provided a comprehensive platform on which business, government as well as other social partners can engage on improving the levels of job rich economic growth.
Job creation featured highly in last night's address, with the President announcing the formation of R9 billion job fund, which would finance new job creation initiatives over a three-year period. It would be complemented by an amount of R10 billion to be set aside by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) over the next five years for investment in projects with high job-creation potential.
Zuma also announced R20 billion in tax allowances and tax breaks to promote investments, expansions and upgrades in the manufacturing sector.
"It is known that business, and therefore job creation and growth, performs best in an environment secured by both policy coherence and certainty about what policy developments there will be in the future. We are pleased that the President committed his government to a disciplined macroeconomic approach," said BUSA spokesperson Masego Lehihi.
Lehihi said BUSA was encouraged by the government's intention to cut costs for small business as well as to pursue legislative reform, so as to ease the doing of business as well as to combat corruption.
"We believe that reducing the costs of doing business in South Africa, across the spectrum, will be imperative. We need to encourage vigorous entrepreneurship, as well as a rapid improvement in our improved global competitiveness to improve job creation. We eagerly await the specifics and implementation deadlines on these commitments," she explained.
BUSA would have liked a clearer commitment by Zuma on the possible tightening of constraints on the labour market.
"This is something that could cast a dark shadow over our future employment prospects. Employment-friendly labour legislation is essential to decrease the high level of joblessness that currently prevails."
Zuma was applauded for the need to ensure service delivery at grassroots level.
"This is important for business, especially for our smaller and emerging enterprises, many of whom are deeply dependent on the efficient delivery of basic services from and proper administration of the municipalities in which they are located," she said.
Absa Capital said Zuma portrayed a positive outlook for the fiscus when he stated that the budget deficit will decline from the current 6.7 percent of GDP, to between three and four percent by 2013.
"Overall, yesterday's State of the Nation Address was pretty uneventful, and therefore, we continue to look for further direction on both fiscal and monetary policy in the upcoming National Budget. We see few significant risks to the fiscus emanating from last night's speech, with the upcoming National Budget likely to be 'business as usual'," said Absa.
The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) also welcomed progress on the delivery of basic services.
"The complaints about service delivery cited are pervasive in many towns in which our chambers operate. Faster delivery is important to prevent the pace of accumulation of challenges superseding the pace of improvements," said SACCI President Chose Choeu, who added that business will await details of further exchange control reforms.
On job creation Choeu said: "The recognition that government needs to work with business and other social partners to achieve its objectives and that job creation is a prime function of the private sector but that government will play its role. However government cannot call on business to play a stronger role in employment when there is restrictive legislation in the offing."
SACCI said it would have liked to see greater focus on what role government will play in creating and maintaining a nurturing environment for business so that employers can contribute to job creation.
