Cape Town – Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies says his department is on track to achieve good audit results without any findings.
Speaking to journalists after tabling the department’s 2013/14 annual report, he said: “The report shows that the administration is making progress... It is improving all the time and the Auditor General put it to me that we are … close to having no findings whatsoever. We have had one finding of irregular expenditure.”
He said the current administration was on course to further industrialise the economy through the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP).
Also, localisation – where investors are pushed to open manufacturing plants locally – has over the past year helped retain and create thousands of jobs.
Minister Davies said despite the economic situation domestically and globally, his department was on course to making a positive impact on South Africa’s economy in order to grow it at a rate of 5% by 2019.
Globally, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slowed from an annualised quarter-to-quarter rate of 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 2.1% in the first quarter of 2014.
Locally, after the economy slowed by an annualised quarter-to-quarter rate of -0.6% in the first quarter, it grew by 0.6% in the second quarter of 2014, with the manufacturing sector contracting by 2.1%, mainly due to the knock-on effects of the prolonged five-month strike in the mining sector.
Despite the challenging economic environment, Minister Davies said that the department’s policy interventions have made a positive difference in boosting trade promotion and investment in the country.
This, he said, would further boost the manufacturing industry.
“The interventions, we believe, have made a significant difference to those parts of manufacturing. The challenge now is not to lose our heads, but to stay on course,” he said.
Some of his department’s achievements in facilitating the transformation of the economy to promote industrial development over the past year included:
- Attracting investment of R16 billion in the automotive sector;
- Mercedes Benz escalating its total investment to more than R5 billion, resulting in the creation of 800 new jobs;
- Transnet announcing its intention to purchase more than 1 000 locomotives at an estimated value of R50 billion, which in turn commits locomotive contractors to a target of 65% local content over time. This is expected to create and preserve about 30 000 jobs; and
- The production of the film Long Walk to Freedom, which raked in earnings of R23 million at the South African box office to become the highest grossing film in the country.
The Minister said going forward, the department has set itself several goals, which include the facilitation of broad-based economic participation through targeted interventions to achieve more inclusive growth.
A fair regulatory environment would also be created to enable investment, trade and enterprise development in an equitable and socially responsible manner.
Minister Davies said supporting local entrepreneurs would take centre stage through localisation. The enforcement of localisation will also be increased. – SAnews.gov.za
