Jacobs, speech for the official opening of Heidelberg Road
28 July 2006
Programme Director,
Councillors present,
Colleagues and friends,
The community of Heidelberg:
Our approach to infrastructure investment is driven by the strategic
objective of enabling faster economic growth through investment in mobility.
This refers to the mobility of people, goods and services between various
economic nodes in our province and our country with minimum delay or
inhibition.
In order to achieve this objective, government is putting much emphasis on
quality road infrastructure investment.
The Heidelberg Road Development Project which we are launching today is one
such form of investment.
This project is linking the south of Gauteng with its east creating new
opportunities and possibilities for trade, tourism and social integration.
This dual carriageway, a major arterial that is also meant to help in easing
congestion, has also resulted in the empowerment of local entrepreneurs and
emerging contractors in the form of capital investment.
Much of the material that has been utilized on the project was sourced from
local Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) and entrepreneurs from
previously disadvantaged communities.
In this regard, 18 subcontractors have participated in the project and this
has resulted in a more than trickling effect in economic benefit to the local
economy and entrepreneurs.
Besides capital investment the projectâs most important form of empowerment
has been at the level of investment in training and development programmes in
line with governmentâs objective of building skilled and productive people.
Beneficiaries of such training and development programmes will in the long
run constitute a vehicle for the development of self sustainable communities as
we seek to address the demand for skills in our rapidly growing economy.
We believe in investing in social capital that glue which keeps communities
together, encapsulating the passion and vision of a community.
Therefore, we are confident that the skills gained from this project will
not be lost but will result in the production of advanced forms of responses to
local needs for infrastructure.
We are also cognisant of the rapid increase in capital investment in our
province reflective of the status of Gauteng as not only a local economic hub,
but an investment market that attracts international investment.
This project is also one of the biggest contractor development programmes in
the history of democratic rule in Gauteng, however, more work needs to be done
in order to spread the benefit to all emerging contractors.
In this regard, our Department has already launched two out of a planned 12
Construction Contact Centres (CCC) that will be rolled out through Gauteng.
The third one will be launched in the next few days, further enabling us to
link emerging contractors with established players in the construction
sector.
At the same time this will give entry level contractors an opportunity to
learn the construction trade and its environment through our one stop help
centre known On Site Centres.
These centres provide access to comprehensive support infrastructure for
emerging contractors; giving them a chance to raise their bar in terms of
grading levels with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).
The emerging contractors who have befitted through the construction of this
road will also be enlisted on the CCC programme for further training and
development.
This Heidelberg Road investment is a co-operative response of government and
local partners to growth in the socio economic potential of the communities
that make up Gauteng Province.
It also offers us a chance to make effective use of land in our province and
to maximise benefits from development programmes.
We are also here today as indication of a positive and rapidly accelerating
trajectory of growth in the economy of our province.
Besides the challenge of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the demand for
infrastructure in Gauteng is incongruent to the supply of both the material and
skills.
Gauteng is a compact province with great potential, central both
geographically and economically linking our Southern Africa Developing
Community (SADC) region with the world but also linking province and
cities.
But Gauteng is also becoming a home to high calibre forms of human capital
reflective of a gradually broadening of a advanced skills from all corners of
country and beyond.
We need to respond comprehensively and timeously to these challenges and
this can only be done if we all work together to build a better and smart
province.
In conclusion, let me indicate that this road will assist the process to
ensure that we make Gauteng a global city region.
Thank you!
Issued by: Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, Gauteng
provincial Government
28 July 2006
