Programme director
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
All protocol observed
We feel honoured to be part of this wonderful occasion where we are meeting to launch the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce, an organisation which we have no doubt that it will play a pivotal role in ensuring youth participation in business.
Programme director, in isiZulu, we say inkunzi isematholeni. Loosely translated, this means that young people are the future. This also means that in order for this country to reach its full potential, particularly in the business arena, we need to collectively channel our energies in ensuring that we empower our young people so that they can be masters of their own destiny.
Today’s launch of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce is therefore a milestone, in that it will ensure that we give practical meaning to our collective endeavour to create a platform for our young people to participate in business. The reality programme director is that at some point all of us will have to vacate this stage of life and make way for future generations. However, we need to start giving our young people skills and the necessary expertise to ensure that they are able to face the challenges of the future, particularly in the business field.
Programme director, since the birth of democracy, 15 years ago, one of the critical programmes that our government has pursued is youth empowerment. As a department that is driving economic growth in our province, youth empowerment is very close to our hearts. This is evidenced by a number of concrete programmes that our department is driving. These include support for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME’s) and cooperatives.
Therefore, the launch of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce will compliment our efforts in that it will serve as a platform for young people to network, share ideas in order for their businesses to flourish. We therefore hope that young people, those who already have their own businesses and those who are aspiring businessmen will use this critical tool to assist one another so that they can collectively navigate the treacherous waters of the business environment.
Programme director, in less than four months we will be drawing down the curtain on this year. We will be bidding farewell to what has been arguably one of the difficult economic periods of our nascent democracy. Undoubtedly, 2009 will go down in history as the year in which all of us buckled under the after effects of the economic meltdown. This has been a year in which it emerged that our country had entered the negative growth territory, a condition that is conventionally known as the recession.
Many of you will remember that about ten year ago we had one of the biggest economic crises of our time when the economies of the countries which are known as the Asian Tigers faced challenges. The crisis had a contagious effect and affected the markets the world over. However, what occurred about ten years ago cannot be compared to what happened about a year ago, when the sub prime lending crisis started unravelling with the collapse of financial institutions such as Bear Stearns.
In fact many an economic guru agrees that the financial turbulence that was triggered by the recklessness of the few in the United States American (USA) is perhaps the biggest since the great depression. While our country to a certain extent has not been severely affected as, however it was inevitable that we would not be immune to the spill over effects of the greatest economic storm of our age. Over the past few weeks we have noticed that many first world economies are bottoming up and that there are signs that the worst might be over.
However, it is clear that we are not out of the economic rut yet. Those who are in the know say every cloud has a silver lining. In other words, there is a good in every crisis. In the context of the economic meltdown, what has emerged out of it is that all the countries are fashioning a new economic system out of the ruins of the economic edifice. The economic script has changed. Even the high priests of unfettered free market system are now talking about government intervention.
The long held belief that the free market system has an in built self-regulating mechanism has now been shattered. It has become clear that, left to their own devices, the markets can plunge the world into a crisis that is bigger than what we have experienced.
As they say we are all Keynesians now. If Adam Smith, who is arguably the father of the free market system as we know it, can wake up today he can be shocked that the most over traded word in our business lexicon is the word bail out. This means that as a country we cannot afford not to be part of attempts at creating a new economic order. What is important is that, drawing from the lessons of this economic turmoil, we must create a new economic system that take into account our own positioning, our own interests and our own needs.
The challenge therefore that the members of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce face is that they should not just think locally in what ever they do but they must always take into account that we are all global citizens. They should take into account that the world has changed. They should take into account that we live in a world where we have global citizens who owe allegiances to no country but to their investments which they can follow to any part of the globe.
This chamber should therefore be a melting pot of business ideas. It should be a cauldron of innovative ideas. As all of us know, programme director, young people are by their very nature innovative, although some will say adventurous. Unlike old people who are moderated by the passing of time and burdened by the weight of responsibility, young people are known for their ability to push the boundaries of innovation.
Programme director, one of the programmes that our government has come up with to level the economic playing field in our country is the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE). It is a known fact that the BBBEE train has barely moved out of the station in our province. To say that we are lagging behind when it comes to the implementation of BBBEE in our province is an understatement. We have no doubt that this forum will come up with innovative ideas on how young people will partner with government to ensure that we transform our economy and our people who were banished from the economic stage are indeed given a role to participate.
The launch of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce heralds the start of a bright future for our province. As government, we want to assure all the people who played a role to ensure that today becomes a reality that we will always be available to assist to ensure that this forum lives up to our collective expectations. We also want to reiterate the fact that our government will always support companies that are owned by young people. As young people we have been given a canvas on which to draw a new economic future in which all of us have a stake. We have no doubt that all the bright sparks gathered here with rise up to this challenge.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
18 September 2009
Source: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government (http://www.kznded.gov.za/)
