The KwaZulu-Natal government will hold a job and economic recovery summit to devise a plan to prevent the province from descending further into an economic slump.
Delivering the State of the Province Address, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize said the summit would focus on saving jobs and strategies to support affected industries.
KwaZulu-Natal has been hardest hit by the economic meltdown with 117 000 jobs lost in the first quarter of 2009. The province has the highest number of people who have lost jobs, followed by Gauteng.
“Our first task as the provincial government is to work with industries and the labour movement to save more jobs lost through retrenchments. “The summit will involve the major players in industry, especially automotive, clothing and textile, manufacturing, construction and other sectors more adversely affected.” Mkhize said the summit would be held at the end of August.
An advisory body which would be a provincial version of the National Economic Development and Labour Council would be set up at the conference, he said. Mkhize said there was also a need for the province to devise strategies to stimulate the first economy to increase investments and create more jobs.
“Our interventions must seek to integrate the second economy to help the small business sector, especially the informal sector, to survive as this is the sector that has borne the brunt of the recession,” he said.
KwaZulu-Natal had benefited from huge investments in infrastructure for 2010. This included the refurbishment of the Durban and Richard's Bay ports, the Ngula Eskom power station in the Drakensberg, the King Shaka International Airport and several road upgrades.
“It is clear that the construction sector will continue to create more jobs in the short and medium term. “Our challenge is to align our skills development programmes to ensure that our people acquire the necessary skills to take advantage of these developments.”
He said government had recognised that tourism had potential to create thousands of jobs in the first and second economy. “Tourism constitutes about eight percent of the provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the economic impact of tourism for 2008 was in the order of R22 billion, employing 144 000 people in KwaZulu-Natal.”
According to recent statistics, KwaZulu-Natal was the leading domestic tourism market destination with 32% of the market share. It is also the third destination for international visitors totalling 1,4 million tourists.
Mkhize, who took over as premier after the April elections, said his government faced serious constraints caused by huge over expenditure.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
18 June 2009
Source: Sapa
