The KwaZulu-Natal Economic Symposium held in Gateway uMhlanga today, the first of its kind in the province and hosted by MEC for Finance, Ina Cronjé, has given the Provincial Treasury a sense of what can be done to stimulate economic growth of the province.
The purpose of the symposium, attended by renowned economists and financial management strategists, was to discuss the current state of economic growth of KwaZulu-Natal. The discussions also looked at creative ways of growing the economy to benefit all sectors of the society and also helping them it become the most economically developed province in the country.
Addressing the delegates, MEC Cronjé said the recent global economic meltdown has contributed to the decline of many economies in the world.“Despite this, the KZN economy has seen a slight increase of economic growth of 1.6 % in 2009 and 3.4 % in 2011, but we can do more. In Agriculture sector, KwaZulu-Natal is supposed to improve immensely because of the favourable agricultural conditions. The 2012 economic growth seems cautiously optimistic with 3.5 % in KwaZulu-Natal,” she said.
Cronjé said “In South Africa, we consume more than we can afford. You go to any shopping mall, you see people spending and spending, and at the same shopping mall, you go to a bank, you check the savings queue, you find one or two people only. This is unlike many developed countries, with China being one of them who spend their energies building their economies and saving at the same time”.
She said the symposium is meant to help government get some fresh ideas to stimulate growth in province. All economists were unanimous in saying that KwaZulu-Natal is projecting a positive growth rate however much intervention is still needed to solve unemployment problem. Mel Clark of Black Balance said the province needs the kind of growth of middle class based on entrepreneurship as this would help in the creation of employment and luring investment and risk taking.
“KwaZulu-Natal has a sizeable number of large corporates as well as numerous small companies, but not enough medium-sized companies that will help encourage investment,” he said. He said that the landscape of the provincial economy can only change when government undertakes strategic and targeted investment initiatives.
Chris Hart from Investment Solutions said KwaZulu-Natal has the advantage of ports that serve the nation. “What we need to bear in mind, as a weakness, is the lack of strong infrastructure links between KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland and Mozambique and the province needs to do something to improve this situation,” said Hart.
Of general agreement was the fact that KwaZulu-Natal is on a good economic trajectory but in order to stimulate further growth, the province needs to consider spending more on infrastructure development. To help chart the way forward for the province, Provincial Treasury will compile a report with all the views obtained during the symposium and submit it to the Premier of the province.
For clarity, contact department Spokesperson
Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 687 8777
