Creating jobs and building local supplier industries through the Government’s massive infrastructure programme will be the hallmark of the country’s infrastructure spend, says South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Dikobe Ben Martins.
Mr Martins who visited China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) and a number of China Rail companies, says the Government Infrastructure programme to upgrade rail and ports, should benefit the people of South Africa through skills transfer and industrialisation of up-stream manufacturers.
'I think it’s important that while we implement the country’s massive infrastructure programme, we ensure that the benefits of the billions of rand poised to be spent accrue to local industries. This will create jobs for the majority of South Africans, particularly the youth.
'The possible investors and potential funders we met today are well aware of the country’s developmental imperatives and agree that the investments made should leave South Africa more technologically competitive with its global counterparts,' says Mr Martins.
The Deputy Minister Martins informed his Chinese hosts, during a series of meetings with various stakeholders in Beijing today. Mr Martins reiterated this message to the delegates of the China North Rail (CNR), China South Rail (CSR) and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) today, who are interested in implementing some of the key infrastructure programmes.
The meetings with potential Chinese funders and investors are part of the Deputy Minister’s week-long visit to Beijing and Shanghai, which started on Monday. He is leading a South African delegation to source potential funding for the country’s massive infrastructure projects.
The visit also aims to identify possible areas of cooperation and to promote the South African Government’s infrastructure programme, especially the Transnet Expansion and Eskom Build programmes. Identifying potential suppliers and funders was also key.
During a meeting with the Vice Chairman of China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), Mr Huang Shuhe on Monday, 27 February 2012, the two parties agreed to finalise the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, which lays the foundation for the two Departments to share information and strengthened their cooperation on issues of mutual interest.
'The visit gives expression to the announcements made by the South African President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation address on 9 February 2012, where he announced the country’s massive infrastructure programme that will drive the country’s economic growth, create jobs, half unemployment and reduce poverty.
'The Department of Public Enterprises together with the Department of International Relations on and Cooperation is finalising the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable SASAC and Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) to share information and knowledge on issues such as shareholder management models and possible collaboration between our respective SOC', says Deputy Minister Martins of the MoU.
The South African delegation includes senior officials from Eskom, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Passenger Rail Services Agency of SA (PRASA) and the Department of Public Enterprises.
South Africa’s infrastructure programme over the medium-term includes the up-scaling energy generation capacity and increasing investment to unlock bottlenecks in logistics and expand the freight rail transport network to lower the cost of doing business.
Mr Shuhe shared lessons learned from their management of the State-Owned Companies (SOC) managed by SASAC, which has 117 SOC and accounted for about US250 billion dollars in tax returns. SASAC manages state companies in the energy, rail, property and media amongst other sectors of the economy.
'SASAC has a Global Strategy that encourages State-Owned Companies to make investment in international markets. SASAC has made investments in more than 100 countries. South Africa has abundant resources and our two organisations will strive for a win-win partnership,' says Mr Shuhe.
The Deputy Minister on Tuesday, 28 February 2012, met with delegates from CNR and CSR, SOC that design, manufactures and supply’s wagon and locomotives to China’s northern and southern regions respectively. The South African delegation also met with China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, which is a leading company that surveys, designs and constructs highways, railways including high speed railway tracks.
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Deputy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins: Creating jobs and building South Africa’s local supplier industries key to infrastructure development plan
