PROFILE
Projects follow discussions held between the
government and business leaders on how to kickstart growth and showed growing confidence in
the business outlook despite difficult conditions.
The overriding theme, however, was that Gordhan is aware of the
need to create jobs as evidenced by endorsement of the National
Development Plan (NDP), which the Minister says is key to
economic growth.
‘Of greater importance – from a ratings perspective – is going to
be the extent to which the tenets of the NDP show signs of increased
implementation in the year ahead,’ says Dr Jammine.
In tandem with the NDP, the Minister announced the start of the
long-awaited infrastructure spend project of more than R820 billion
planned by both the government and state-owned enterprises. This
programme, which has been stalled since the end of the last multibillion rand infrastructure projects for the 2010 World Soccer Cup,
will not only boost activity in the key construction and building
sector, but create thousands of permanent and temporary jobs.
Edward Kieswetter, Group Chief Executive of Alexander
Forbes Ltd, is enthralled particularly with the announcement of
the infrastructure spend projects. ‘The government’s commitment
to the infrastructure development is both necessary and admirable,
but unless we have a step change in our capacity to deliver, this
programme remains ambitious,’ says Kieswsetter.
The private sector has also responded to calls by the government
for a joint effort to tackle unemployment and poverty. In the
speech, Gordhan announced pledges by companies in sectors such
as telecommunications, retail and mining, to embark on billionrand projects worth over R70 billion which are estimated to create
thousands of jobs.
Gordhan says these projects follow discussions held between the
government and business leaders on how to kick-start growth and
showed ‘growing confidence in the business outlook despite difficult
conditions’.
Kieswetter says a private sector partnership with government is
a critical success factor, now more than ever.
Specific to the financial sector, Gordha