The Director–General of Trade and Industry Mr Lionel October handed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to the President of the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services (FABCOS) Mr Mxolisi Zwane at a ceremony in Pretoria. This followed the signing of the MoU which seeks to identify areas of mutual collaboration, cooperation, exchange pertinent information and coordination of activities for both the dti and FABCOS.
October said that the dti has been pushing two agendas for some time, “one is the manufacturing industrialisation agenda, where we say the only route to prosperity is if we start manufacturing things and we are currently making progress there.” Secondly with the BEE Act the dti wants to create opportunities for entrepreneurs to take part in the mainstream economy.
“There is now a merger between the black empowerment strategy and industrialisation strategy which is evident in this partnership with FABCOS,” he added.
According to October, this project will be a model for the dti as the intention is to put entrepreneurs in the leadership. “We want this partnership to work so we can go from strength to strength”. We have a broad national support for the industrial policy which was endorsed by both Parliament and Cabinet, so I believe the time is right to do this,” he said.
The Deputy President of FABCOS Phillip Usiba said that they are intending to engage in projects that will ensure that industrialisation is part of the mainstream economy especially were black business is involved. He also voiced their appreciation to the fact that there will be a monitoring and evaluation team which will monitor their implementation of the projects and agreements. “There are other projects that are already being realised which are part of the MoU and we are eyeing projects like Micro Maize meal, Isigayo, and Cartoon Candy.” He reiterated that the partnership will not be for businesses that are part of FABCOS only, but will be open to other small businesses that will want to take part.
The main objective of the agreement is to assist historically disadvantaged controlled or owned businesses to be sustainable. According to the dti the collaboration with FABCOS is necessary to ensure the development of Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMME’s) which will lead to growth and result in sustainable market driven employment opportunities. The mutual exchange of information and services is a critical success factor to develop SMMEs in different sectors especially the historically disadvantaged individuals.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe, Departmental Spokesperson
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E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
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