Introduction
“We cannot predict the future, but we can invent it.”
The future we are inventing in the 2014 MTEF will bring us closer to our Provincial Vision that by 2030 KwaZulu-Natal will be a prosperous Province with a healthy, secure and skilled population, acting as a gateway to Africa and the World.
We have been creating a good future since democracy, improving the lives of millions of our people and making our Province and country a much better place to live in than it was in 1994.
As President Jacob Zuma alluded to in his State of the Nation Address on 17 June 2014, we have to intensify socio-economic transformation to push back the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Taking the centre stage is our economic growth – with the script for inventing a better future encapsulated in the National and Provincial Development plans:
- Job Creation
- Human Resource Development
- Human and Community Development
- Environmental Sustainability
- Providing Strategic Infrastructure
- Good Governance and Policy
- Spatial Equity
We are creating a future during tough and fragile economic times. While global activity has broadly strengthened and is expected to improve further in 2014/15, there is increased financial volatility in emerging market economies and potential growth in many advanced economies is very low. The International Monetary Fund has recently cut its growth forecast for the United States to 2% this year, below the 2.8% rate it predicted in April.
