P Mashatile: Gauteng Development Planning Indaba

31 January 2007

Programme Director
The Acting Head of Department for Economic Development, Sibusiso Xaba
Senior Management from the public service
Our Guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Thank you for the opportunity to address this, our first Development
Planning Indaba. This occasion draws significance from the fact that it brings
together practitioners, experts and stakeholders in the field of development
planning; together to craft a developmental path for our province that will
take us even closer to the realisation of our common goals.

Also of significance is that this Indaba will further advance our vision to
position Gauteng as a Globally Competitive City Region as it seeks to deepen
the culture of co-ordination, joint planning and implementation among the
various spheres of government.

We welcome the fact that this Indaba will culminate in the launch, tomorrow,
of the Development Planning Forum. The establishment of this Forum marks a
decisive step in our collective endeavour to further strengthen
intergovernmental co-ordination, planning and implementation.

This Forum will go a long way in ensuring that the various spheres of
government and stakeholders work together towards a common goal. In this way,
we will be able to maximise the impact of our collective interventions.

Let me take this opportunity to wish the Forum well in its work. We look
forward to working with the Forum in seeking ways of sustaining higher levels
of economic growth and development in our province.

Programme Director, at the core of the challenges we faced, when our country
entered the second decade of freedom, was the need for us to move with speed
towards the creation of jobs and to further strengthen the fight against
poverty. It was this reality that informed our vision for 2014 and our five
year strategic plan.

As we look back on our achievements since 2004, we can be proud of the
progress we continue to make in changing the lives of our people for the
better.

We count among our successes, the number of houses we built, connected to
the electricity grid and the number of households who have access to proper
sanitation.

We take pride in the progress we are making in transforming our economy and
moving it from a situation of stagnation to that of sustained growth. We
continue to make progress in restoring the dignity of our people and expanding
the social security net.

Expenditure on infrastructure continues to increase, further stimulating the
growth of the provincial economy, creating jobs and developing new nodes of
economic activity. A better Gauteng is indeed in the making.

Our key challenge is to sustain these gains. We must be relentless in our
pursuit of higher levels of shared economic growth and job creation. We must
strengthen efforts aimed at broadening participation in the mainstream economy
and extend opportunities for our people to create for themselves a better
life.

Furthermore, we have a responsibility to deepen the quality of our
interventions aimed at promoting social cohesion. We must do all of these
things as part of our overall effort to intensify our offensive on poverty in
our province. One of the critical challenges we face in Gauteng is that of
relatively high but unequal levels of economic growth and development. Even as
the provincial economy continues to show signs of robustness, pockets of
poverty and underdevelopment still persist.

We also face the challenge of environmental degradation which has profound
implications on our ability to meet the developmental goals we have set for
ourselves.

In response to these and many other challenges, we have submitted to the
Executive Council for approval the Gauteng Spatial Development Perspective. We
are also at an advanced stage with regard to the finalisation of the Gauteng
Spatial Development Framework.

Collectively, these interventions will assist us to develop a clear
developmental path for Gauteng. They will guide future planning and ensure that
our development programmes are targeted such that they deliver maximum impact
in the shortest time possible.

Furthermore, we are amending the Gauteng Planning and Development Act to
ensure that it is in line with the development path we have chosen for
ourselves. We are also developing uniform guidelines to align the various town
planning schemes currently existing in our province.

All of this work is aimed at giving guidelines in the formulation of
development plans across the province. It gives meaning to our vision to
position Gauteng as a Globally Competitive City Region, will eliminate
duplication and give greater certainty to investors into our province.

As we craft for ourselves a developmental path, we must also take into
account initiatives from national government such as the Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa and the National Spatial Development
Perspective.

In addition, our developmental path needs to be geared towards the
achievement of the goals of the provincial Growth and Development Strategy and
various other provincial strategies. I am confident that this Indaba will
engage successfully with these issues.

Our emphasis should be on implementation and more implementation. We no
longer have the luxury of developing strategies just for the sake of it.

We trust that the Forum, which we will be launching tomorrow, will ensure
accelerated implementation of the outcomes of this Indaba.

Out of this Indaba we must emerge with a clear and common understanding of
our roles in the pursuit of the developmental path we have chosen for
ourselves.

Indeed, this Indaba offers an ideal opportunity for all of us to move from
the same premise and to operate as a Global City Region where we will
contribute and complement each other to make Gauteng a successful City
Region.

I wish you well in your deliberations. May this Indaba succeed in all its
objectives.

Let us get down to work. I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Finance and Economic Affairs, Gauteng Provincial
Government
31 January 2006