Address by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the inaugural South African Business Incubation Conference, Gallagher Estate, Midrand
Programme Director,
Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu,
Minister of Economic Development, Ebrahim Patel,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening! Goeie naand! Dumelang!
It is a great honour to have been invited to address this, the inaugural South African Business Incubation Conference.
This conference is an opportunity to share best practice, to learn, to generate ideas, to strengthen cooperation and to find common strategies to build our economy.
This conference demonstrates that our government is serious about small business development.
For us, small business is not a small matter at all.
It is the backbone of our radical economic development programme.
We place the hopes of our nation for a thriving, inclusive economy on the success of small business.
Our National Development Plan – the NDP – identifies support for small business development as critical in achieving faster, more inclusive growth to create the millions of jobs that our country needs.
In line with the NDP, South Africa is lowering the costs of doing business, improving skills and innovation and targeting state support to specific sectors, especially labour absorbing sectors.
We remain committed to public and private procurement approaches that stimulate domestic industry and job creation.
We are determined to continuously improve business policy coordination and implementation.
The NDP calls on all stakeholders to improve support for small business through better coordination of relevant agencies, development finance institutions, and public and private incubators.
We therefore commend the Department of Small Business Development and its stakeholders for launching this national business incubation platform.
This must be a platform that informs, enlightens and excites.
It must encourage entrepreneurs to persevere and inspire them to succeed.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Business incubation is considered across the globe to be one of the most dynamic and successful measures for supporting early stage commercial enterprises.
Governments around the world are initiating business incubation programmes to help nascent entrepreneurs survive the important stages of starting a business.
Governments can ease the barriers to entry and reduce the cost of doing business.
They can provide seed capital, build critical infrastructure and create a space for research and innovation.
In South Africa, business incubation has an uneven history.
Much of what we have come to know as a formalised business incubation model is based on intermittent ‘industrial hives’ and unsustainable separate development architecture.
Thus we need a new model for business incubation; one that is based on strategic government intervention, coordination and redistribution.
It is a model that must also incorporate the achievements, resources and capabilities of private and non-governmental involvement in small business incubation.
Since 1994, we have created an extensive network of more than 110 business incubators with 78% of these funded by government.
This is a remarkable achievement, but much more still needs to be done. We are learning and getting better. We are trying new ideas and, where necessary, adjusting policy.
We are learning from the best in the world and are building the necessary partnerships to attract much needed skills and resources. Our narrative on small business development is also changing. We are saying that small business is serious business.
We are saying that small business must become a national obsession. It is for this reason that we are working on incubation approaches that are based on credible, innovative models.
We are helping small businesses build vital networks and linkages with established businesses. We are cutting red tape.
We are working to create opportunities for small businesses to provide goods and services to the state, parastatals and industries such as mining and manufacturing.
To succeed, we need a small business ecosystem that works.
For its part, government will ensure policy certainty and promote investment. It will facilitate export marketing and unlock sales and distribution networks.
It will continue to ensure political stability and promote positive business sentiment.
Most importantly, government will continue to direct resources towards those activities that have the greatest potential to promote the growth of our economy and the development of our people.
We will continue to direct our energies towards those measures – such as small business incubation – that have the greatest impact on the living standards of the poor.
Our efforts must incorporate the informal economy, which continues to play a crucial role in our economy.
It provides a crucial buffer against high levels of poverty and unemployment.
But we would like to see entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector to grow and develop.
We would like them to become part of the formal economy, using their entrepreneurial instincts and practical experience to craft thriving, sustainable businesses.
We need an incubation environment that helps small businesses to become established and to survive.
Many of the small businesses that leave our incubation programmes will remain small.
Many will grow into medium-sized businesses.
They will be profitable, provide employment, pay tax, meet the needs of clients and contribute to economic growth.
Some will grow into large businesses and, in time, into multinationals.
We want our incubation programmes to produce small businesses that can be handed down to future generations.
We want to cultivate a small businesses culture that is enterprising, drives innovation and is supported by technological progress.
We want small business leaders that are aspirant industrialists.
We want small businesses that are profitable, competitive, efficient and hard working.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Government is not in the business of running private enterprises.
Ours is to play a facilitation role.
Ours is to create an environment in which the potential of entrepreneurs can be uncovered and nurtured.
Nor is government interested in displacing the efforts of many private sector and non-governmental incubation programmes.
We aim to complement, collaborate and support each other.
As we gather here for this conference, we need to make a call to established business to play a far greater role in the development of small business.
If we were able to effectively harness the skills, capabilities, resources, procurement opportunities and networks of established businesses, we would not only change the face of small business.
We would change the fortunes of our country.
We therefore call on the private sector, labour, government, academia and development organisations to work together to build our country into a small business incubation nation.
That is what this conference is about.
It is about bringing together those people who can make a difference.
It is about sharing ideas, it is about being critical and introspective, and it is about igniting a new wave of small business development.
In closing, allow me to look forward many years.
The vision statement of the National Development Plan speaks of a South Africa in 2030 in which:
We are traders.
We are inventors.
We are workers.
We create companies.
We set up stalls.
We are studious.
We are gardeners.
We feel a call to serve.
We make things.
Out of our homes we create objects of value.
We invest and reap good returns for our efforts.
Through your efforts, and the efforts of many more, we are certain that we will achieve that vision.
I thank you.
