Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel says the accords signed by social partners in South Africa have begun to bring the desired economic development results. Minister Patel was presenting his Department’s quarterly reports to the Economic Development Portfolio Committee in Cape Town today, 19 March 2013. He was supported by the Director-General Ms Jennifer Schreiner and executive managers of Economic Development Department.
Minister Patel listed the local procurement, the national skills, the basic education and the green economy accords which have heightened the participation of social partners in advancing development in each area of interest. The Minister tabulated a series of successes registered through the accords which include:
- The establishment of the only minibus taxi assembly plants in South Africa and in the Africa that in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal for Toyota and in Springs, Gauteng for the Beijing Automotive Works, a Chinese company. The two minibus taxi assemble plants have significantly improved that share of locally assembled taxis sold in year from zero to 50% in less just over 12 months. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), a public entity reporting to the Economic Development Department was mandated to provide an incentive scheme to enable the companies to build their capacity for local assembling of minibus taxis.
- A private company has adopted a poor and under resourced school in Gugulethu in Cape Town and contributed with resources and general support to improve the quality of education outcomes, as a sequel to the signing of the Basic Education Accord signed by government and social partners under the auspices of the Economic Development Department.
The Minister says in due course his department is going to announce a date for the signing of a Youth Accord by key social partners in order to step up collaboration in addressing developmental challenges facing young people including high unemployment rates.
Responding to questions about his departments tracking, monitoring and evaluation of outputs and outcomes of its intervention, Minister Patel said a system for tracking and measuring the jobs impact of its implementing agencies such as the Industrial Development Corporation and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency has been introduced.
The Minister cited the saving of over 2 000 jobs and creation of additional 1 000 jobs when the IDC supported a Richard’s Bay based earth-moving equipment manufacturing company – Bell Equipment – when its survival was threatened following the global economic downturn.
He said Economic Development Department had met its targets for staff employment in quarter two and quarter three of the 2012/13 financial year. “As the department’s work grows, so does its human resources and equipment”, said Minister Patel , adding that he is satisfied with the progress made to build institutional capacity in Economic Development to help deliver on its mandate and meet its service delivery targets.”
Enquiries:
Manelisi Wolela
Cell: 083 626 0304
Email: mwolela@economic.gov.za
