Programme director
The Newly Elected Mayor of Ethekwini Municipality, Councillor
James Nxumalo
The President of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber Of Commerce Vuyani Majola
Members of the Executive of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce
Dignitaries present
Ladies and gentlemen
All protocol observed
It gives us pleasure as the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism to be part of this occasion where we are meeting to launch one of the critical programmes as part of our on-going efforts to open up space for more young business people to play a role in the economy of our province and of our country.
We believe that it is fitting that this programme, which is aimed at ensuring that we create more young entrepreneurs who will be able to hold their own in the rough and tumble world of business, is being launched during this month, where we take stock of youth empowerment in our country.
Not only is June a month of reflection on issues affecting young people, but is also forces us to take a hard look at ourselves and ask many questions about whether we have a calibre of young leaders who understand the challenges that we face as a country and whether they will be able to seize the future that we will bequeath to them. After all it is often said that the future of any nation depends on its young people.
It is because of this reason that we would like to commend the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce for continuously striving to ensure that issues of youth empowerment are put firmly in our provincial agenda. Given the history of our country, the reality is that many of the challenges that we are facing as a nation can only be resolved if we are able to grow our economy.
In order to do that we need a cadre of businessmen who have the vision and fortitude, who are able to imagine the world and more importantly who are able to think locally but act globally. The fact of the matter is that we can no longer afford to be inward looking given the interconnectedness of the world which has been brought by technology and the proverbial globalisation.
Programme director, as many of you are aware, last week we hosted the inaugural International Entrepreneurship and Investment Conference which was held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre and attended by policy makers, captains of industry, business people, academics and a number of other critical stakeholders. One of the primary reasons why we convened the conference was to create dialogue about what we can do as a province to ensure that while we continue to attract investment into KwaZulu-Natal we simultaneously create business people who have the entrepreneurship spirit.
Critically, we wanted to ensure that in our efforts to put KwaZulu-Natal on the global investment map we are able to start a conversation and also take concrete steps to ensure that we locate our province’s economic prospects in the context of regional integration. With the world moving towards regional integration, it has become an undeniable fact that our progress as a province and indeed as a country is indirectly linked to that of our region.
Already, we know that all the countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region have agreed that by 2015 we will have a single market and that by 2018 we will have a single currency. We have moved beyond debating the pros versus the cons of regional integration. It is an accepted fact that most of those countries who fail to take advantage of regional economic integration, usually suffer economic ignomity. As a country and as a province, this is a pitfall we should avoid.
It is our belief that our province is more than well placed to seize the opportunities that will accrue out of the integration owing to the fact that we are the only province which has two ports and Dube Trade Port, incorporating the newly built King Shaka International Airport. This, we believe, put us in good stead to be the logistics hub of our SADC region. In short, we want to ensure that our province, because of its competitive and its comparative advantages, becomes the gateway to the African continent.
The question usually posed when we talk regional economic integration is what it practically means for our economy. Currently, South Africa, which is the smallest member of the BRICS group of nations, has a market of about of about 50 million people while the biggest economy within BRICS, China, has a population of 1,3 billion people.
What regional economic integration will mean for South Africa is that it will have access to an under-serviced market of about 257 million people within SADC. This access, coupled with both comparative and competitive advantages, means that we stand a better chance of confirming our status as being the gateway to Africa than currently is the case.
This, therefore, means that as we map out our economic trajectory we need to locate our future economic fortunes within the context of the developments in the SADC region. As we hosted the IEI Conference, we wanted our business people to have an understanding that in the not too distant future they will be operating in a new business space where they will be competing for opportunities with their fellow businessmen from the SADC region.
While this will open a new window of opportunity, undoubtedly, entrepreneurs from this province will need to up their game because with many opportunities also comes many challenges and intense competition. Not only was the conference a phenomenal success, but we have taken concrete steps to ensure that when the integration happens KwaZulu-Natal is able to harvest the economic opportunities that will brought to bear by the integration.
But more importantly the conference did not only discuss issues and ended there, it adopted a roadmap that will be implemented to ensure that KwaZulu-Natal is not caught napping by the integration. One of the critical issues that the conference noted was that the global economic space is, as we know, shifting dramatically with the developing countries emerging as dominant players in the world economy.
As stated earlier, we now know that South Africa was recently invited to be part of the BRIC countries which are forecast to be the biggest trading and economic block in the few years to come.
This means, apart from a confluence of abundant opportunities that exists for our business men who can now be able to trade with these countries, South Africa is in a fortunate position because it is represented in the table of nations that are forecast to be the economic leaders of our times. But more importantly the invitation of our country opens up opportunities for African countries to actively participate in the international markets and attract the much needed foreign direct investment to their countries.
One of the resolutions which were taken by the conference is for the province to begin to identify opportunities in Bric countries so that we can be able to seize them. We also agreed that we need to aggressively develop African trade promotion strategies and market our province as the gateway to the African continent.
The conference also resolved to:
- streamline, coordinate and manage trade agencies trying to attract limited FDI opportunities
- effectively promote the financial incentives available for industrial development revitalisation and job creation
- create an enabling environment for South African companies to identify opportunities to supply goods and services to Africa and the rest of the world through KZN trade and investment agency and other similar agencies
- package and promote the existing incentives, opportunities and structures making them more accessible to entrepreneurs
But more importantly we agreed that more than ever before our country and indeed our province need to create a new breed of entrepreneurs who will be able to seize these opportunities generated by our participation in BRICS and those that will be brought by the regional integration.
The dearth of entrepreneurship in our country was one of the hotly-debated topics in our Conference. The conference agreed that the kind of entrepreneur we want for the future of our economy is not one who is perpetually propped by government and opportunities that government may make available.
In order to compete in the global arena, the Conference resolved that a collaborative effort involving all stakeholders should be mounted to shape the outlook of our entrepreneurs. It was resolved that studies on entrepreneurship be made part of the curriculum at an early stage i.e. from basic education level. It was also agreed that development finance institutions should streamline their work and focus on specific levels of entrepreneurs, from beginners to seasoned, in order to ensure that there is no double-dipping and that real entrepreneurs get assistance.
Critically, it was agreed that incubation is the way to go in order to generate new entrepreneurs. In this regard, big business was urged to mentor small business and, in particular, to ensure that they use small business or emerging entrepreneurs as their suppliers.
Programme director, we decided to share with you the outcome of the conference because we believe that an organisation such as the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce has a big role to play to ensure that all these resolutions are realised. Because you are young people uninhibited by the failures of the past, you are in a better position to remodel the world. We believe therefore that the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce needs to start linkages with other youth chambers in the region to ensure that it is able to scan the environment and look for opportunities for business people from the province.
We believe that the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce, because of its position of representing young business people in the province is better placed to ensure that KwaZulu-Natal, indeed becomes, the gateway to the continent. The KwaZulu-Natal Youth Chamber of Commerce is better placed to ensure that it nurtures and creates young business people who are able to look at business opportunities beyond the narrow confines of their localities.
It was Karl Max who once said that the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways and the point is to change it. As young businessmen, living in one of the most exciting period of human evolution, you have been given a canvas on which to draw the economic future of your dream. But more importantly history has given you an unviable but rewarding task to complete the mission that was started by many of our struggle icons such as Tsietsi Mashinini, Solomon Mahlangu to liberate our country from the shackles of oppression. This is a mission that you can either fulfill or betray.
I thank you.
