E Thabethe: USAID Forum Alliances for economic growth

10 March 2006

SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT’S TOP PRIORITIES FOR PROMOTING PUBLIC PRIVATE
PARTNERSHIPS

Officials of the USAID
Ladies and gentlemen

It is now a matter for the records that our country, South Africa is
experiencing an unprecedented positive economic growth rate. The President has
articulated that we wish to achieve a six percent growth rate over the next few
years. So far, it seems that this would be achievable given certain factors.
One of these is that we need everyone to ‘come to the party’. We therefore need
strong a partnership from everyone in accelerating our growth; one of the
important partnerships in this regard is the public private alliance.

Our priorities as government to build a strong partnership are:
* Building on our current growth rate to generate jobs;
* More efficient bureaucracy, which makes it easier to do business in South
Africa. South Africa was recently recognised as being in the top five of
developing countries when it comes to ease of starting and operating a
business. An example of one of these improvements in the public service is the
Company Registrations Office, which has reduced the registration time for a new
business from six weeks in 1994 to three days in 2004;
* To respond to and address the causes of the social challenges facing our
country, issues of crime and health;
* Keeping our inflation rate under control at between three percent and six
percent per annum;
* Building strong relations with other countries, especially those in Africa.
Investment and trade with other countries in Africa has grown substantially,
with South Africa becoming one of the largest foreign direct investors in
Africa and since 1994 increasing the volume of trade with African countries by
an average of 17% per annum;
* Developing sound strategies that will ensure that a greater number of our
people can enter the economy as entrepreneurs.

As the dti, our policies are shaped by the overall government strategy. At
the forefront of government policy is the Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA). Billions of rand has been allocated to
infrastructure development. The dti’s particular focus is on the issue of the
Second Economy and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) as well as
Sector Development Strategies.

My brief as one of the two Deputy Ministers of Trade and Industry is the
issue of the Second Economy with a particular focus on women entrepreneurship,
so I am sure I would be forgiven if I focus a little longer on the Second
Economy and how this public private partnership can contribute towards our goal
of an accelerated growth rate.

The importance of the private sector in our approach in developing namely
the SMME sector can be emphasised enough. Surely you will agree with me that
government cannot do it alone. The initiatives by SAB Miller, the kick start
programme and Anglo Zimele are a testimony to some of the ground breaking work
that is being done by the private sector. These initiatives have the potential
to link companies in the Second Economy with those of the First Economy thus
creating an integrated South African economy. The actual involvement of
business therefore becomes critical. The second SMME summit held in the North
West Province in November was testimony to the co-operative approach that we as
government is taking with the private sector to collectively achieve the
country’s developmental objectives.

Over the past few months the dti has rolled out Small Enterprise Development
Agency (Seda) provincial offices in four provinces as well as launching the
Apex fund. These are all initiatives where the private sector can play an
important role in terms of building partnerships with government. The dti gives
institutional and other support to the South African Women Entrepreneur
Network. We work closely with women entrepreneurs to assist in creating a
platform for women to participate in our economy.

The commitment by the government and public sector institutions to invest
over R165 billion in infrastructures and energy related sectors creates an
opportunity for SMMEs to participate in the economy of the country. There is a
need for further investigation of what these opportunities entail. The Gauteng
project that is coming on stream in the near future is a case in point. A
Cabinet decision that “10 manufactured products most used by government should
be identified and ordered from SMMEs” is an indication of government’s
commitment to supporting the small business sector.

There are many other interventions and initiatives by government and in
particular the dti to create an enabling environment for business to grow. We
therefore have to ask the question, ‘what more can the private sector do to
promote this alliance with government’. Earlier in my address I gave an example
of two companies. There are many more companies doing the same, but is it
enough? As government is accelerating their efforts, we ask the business
community to do likewise.

There is no doubt that during this period we have set the stage for future
growth, for creation of many more new jobs and for sustainable broad based
black economic empowerment ventures, so that in the future more people will
have access to and be part of our successful economy. Yes, there are challenges
and we do have a plan to confront these challenges in a spirit of partnership
with all South Africans.

I thank you;

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
10 March 2006