The Ministers of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Mr Des Van Rooyen and Minister of Small Business Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu, will host the inaugural National Local Economic Development (LED) Conference this week in Pretoria.
This important conference that speaks to local economic development, will provide a strategic platform for a dialogue between the public and private sector to exchange ideas on topical and critical issues relating to stimulating local economies. The conference will also allow stakeholders to interact and share information on successes and constraints, with particular emphasis on how to achieve inclusive economic development at local government level.
The conference will present an opportunity to craft a new South African LED agenda aimed at contributing towards achieving radical economic transformation. It will also reflect on South African case studies and experiences in implementing LED.
Section B. 2.3 of the White Paper on Local Government deals specifically with the functional area of Local Economic Development. It acknowledges that local government can play an important role in promoting job creation and boosting the local economy by investing in what it terms “the basics” (i.e. providing good quality cost-effective services); reviewing existing policies and procedures to promote local economic development; and the provision of special economic services.
Based on the above, the Local Economic Development (LED) function of DCoG and DSBD is centred on providing support to municipalities in the creation and promotion of an enabling environment for economic growth and job creation.
Members of the media are invited to attend and cover the National Local Economic Development Conference which will take place as follows:
Date: 9 and 10 November 2017
Time: 8h00
Venue: Saint George’s Conference Centre, Irene (Gauteng)
Enquiries:
Legadima Leso
CoGTA
Cell: 083 378 9495
Cornelius Monama
DSBD
Cell: 060 960 3158
