Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane has highlighted long-term planning as essential in order for the province to be able to position itself as a competitive player in the world.
She was speaking in Chongqing province in the People’s Republic of China following a brief tour of the Chongqing Urban Planning Gallery where all the municipal long-term plans are displayed.
Premier Mokonyane said Gauteng could learn a lot from China’s Chongqing Metropolitan's long term planning especially when it came to projects like housing as South Africa faced the challenge of moving away from the segregated spatial planning inherited from apartheid.
"This is highly impressive. As we plan towards the Vision 2055 and positioning Gauteng as global competitive City Region, this tour becomes very critical to us.
"I was also impressed by the social housing planning of Chongqing that forms part of their 2020 plan. Everything is located close to each other. People stay and work in the same area and that's what we have been advocating in our province to deal with the apartheid regime’s spatial planning," said Mokonyane.
The Premier is leading a high-level delegation of senior government officials, including MECs Qedani Mahlangu of Economic Development and Ismail Vadi of Roads and Transport.
Gauteng’s three metropolitan municipalities, Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni are also represented by their mayors and the delegation also include heads of government departments and Gauteng’s acting Director-General Rashid Seedat.
Premier Mokonyane described the visit as a good experience, adding: “It further confirmed our quest for long term planning. Any government that wants to succeed would not plan for the immediate.”
She added it was important for Gauteng to plan its programmes in advance for the province to be able to attract direct investors and “budget accordingly”.
The relationship with Chongqing would assist Gauteng in its implementation of the Vision 2055 plan.
“We are now looking at building the capacity of the State by recruiting the appropriate experts in different fields. It is also for this reason that we brought with us the local government leaders so that we have a shared vision of the Gauteng Globally Competitive City Region,” she said.
Mokonyane said the Gauteng team was equally impressed by the visit to the Rail Transit Train Manufacturing Company.
“We learnt that this city provides more than 80% of the automotive products in China. We were also told that it takes them only 30 days to build one train.
“This city’s ability to plan for the urbanisation is amazing. In Gauteng when urbanisation happens, it catches us by surprise. We noted that their plans for infrastructure include housing and allows people to walk to work. Social amenities are also close by. This shows a true meaning of shared planning,” said Premier Mokonyane.
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Mokonyane hails China’s long-term plan approach
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