Remarks by President Zuma at the G 20 Summit, on Global Economy, Growth and Investment Strategies, Antalya, Turkey
Your Excellencies;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
As many of you have said here today, as well as the International Organisations, at around 3 per cent, global growth continues to fall short of the rate needed to enable us to make meaningful progress in creating work opportunities for our people.
While a few countries show somewhat robust growth, many are registering very low or stagnant growth.
This is posing a serious challenge because it is only through robust and durable growth that we can succeed in creating more work opportunities for our people, reducing poverty and inequality.
Emerging market and commodity exporting countries like ours have experienced sharp depreciation of their currencies, which are also very volatile. The cost of imports has gone up. This could push up inflation in the future.
The imminent increase in interest rates in the United States is already sending some tremors through financial markets.
Similarly, the importance of the Chinese economy is becoming more evident in the developments there also get transmitted throughout the world.
I would like to make a few remarks about the Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa.
The latest Regional Economic Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund ( IMF), suggests a number of important points that are worth reflecting on here:
While Sub Saharan Africa continues to show robust growth, still being among the fastest growing regions of the world, Sub Saharan Africa's growth slows somewhat to under 5 per cent this year, before accelerating again next year.
Evidently, commodity exporting economies on our continent are being clearly being affected by the decline in commodity prices. This is not only compounded by the strength in the US dollar strength, but by also the subdued growth of our main trading partners. This is affecting government revenues and if sustained could impact fiscal sustainability of some of the countries.
Infrastructure gaps continue to be a drag in the economy of region. It is estimated that our continent needs about $100 billion more investment in infrastructure to wipe out the infrastructure gap and to unlock the full potential of our continent's economy. Yes, we are taking active steps to overcome this, but current global, continental and domestic conditions are making the challenge harder.
In the face of all the headwinds I have just referred to, what should we do as Sub Saharan Africa leaders?
Firstly, we must take decisive steps to institute strongly pro-growth economic policies in our individual countries that are mutually reinforcing.
We must invest in human capital and infrastructure and be deliberate about diversifying our economies with the view to reduce our dependence on exports of commodities.
Secondly, develop and implement regulations that promote rapid expansion of small, medium and large private sector business in non-commodity and non-agricultural areas.
We must systematically reduce the burden of complying with regulations and make doing business far more easy than it is currently.
Thirdly, we must foster more trade among our own countries in the Sub Saharan Africa and between ourselves and the rest of the world.
This is an area of immense potential, but it is also an area that has suffered a lot of setbacks in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
Lastly, I would like to reflect on how we are dealing with these issues in South Africa.
As a commodity exporter, with a small population of about 54 million, the economy of South Africa is affected by past and current global developments in a material way.
We also face domestic challenges: in energy; skills; labour relations; and more recently drought. GDP growth has slowed over the last 3 years. Consequently, our fiscal position has deteriorated somewhat.
But our deep capital markets, prudent fiscal and monetary policies are proving very valuable at these challenging times.
Under the broad umbrella of our National Development Plan, we are implementing a vast infrastructure investment programme. Over the next three years the public sector will spend R865 billion rand in infrastructure.
We are prioritising investment in energy across all technologies, including renewables. Working with our private sector, we are now generating 5 per cent of our energy from renewables.
When projects that are currently under construction are completed, this will expand to over 10 per cent by 2017. A further 10 per cent will come from Coal Fired Power Plants that are under construction.
We have also started discussion with labour and business to improve the functioning of our labour market and stabilise the labour relations environment.
To conclude, as the G20, I cannot over emphasise the importance of being mindful of the impact of our policies, which need to be clearly communicated. Transparency will go a long way in enabling better planning and minimising volatility.
We need to implement our growth strategies, as per the Brisbane Declaration and Action Plan, as a matter of urgency. And finally, recognise that the Sub-Saharan Africa region continues to be one of the growth poles, with the potential where the greatest demographic dividend can be achieved.
I thank you.
