White River - The Small Business Summit has concluded in Mpumalanga, with small business raising their concerns with regards to growing their operations.
The issue of skills development, access to finance and barriers of entering the market were some of the concerns expressed by small business, said Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) board member, Dr Mzwandile Zwane.
Zwane was speaking at the closing of the two-day summit, which had been attended by small business owners and entrepreneurs.
At the various commissions held during the course of the summit, impediments to small business formed part of the discussions.
The summit was hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti).
At one of the breakaway sessions today, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) urged small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) to make use of opportunities that are being made available to small business within state owned entities.
DPE is the shareholder department for eight entities, including Eskom and Transnet.
In 2007, the department started its Competitive Supplier Development Programme (CSDP), which was created to stimulate economic growth.
Eskom and Transnet are set to spend billions to expand and operate their business.
Eskom is set to spend R728 billion over five years to expand and operate its business.
Director for strategic relations at the DPE, Mbali Hlophe, said entities have opportunities for SMME participation, such as in cleaning services and waste management at Eskom.
"These are areas for individuals to participate in the economy," said Hlophe.
However, SMMEs face issues such as skills development. In efforts to address this, Eskom had established a Contractor Academy to assist upcoming contractors. To date, 268 business owners have concluded the programme in the last five years.
Eskom has spent over R1.9 billion in skills development in the last financial year.
"State owned companies are committed to work with SMMEs. We need to grow SMMEs as much as possible so as to create jobs," said Hlophe.
In her opening address at the summit, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Elizabeth Thabethe acknowledged that although progress has been made on policy and development of support infrastructure for SMMEs, further development was still needed by the sector.
“We do, however, still need to encourage further development and growth of SMMEs and co-operatives as a vehicle for job creation and economic development of the country,” said Thabethe on Wednesday.
The summit was held under the theme ‘The Role of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises in South Africa’s Industrialisation Path’. - SAnews.gov.za
