Ravi Naidoo, DBSA: ‘ ‘There needs to
be a shift from short-term to long-term
strategic purpose of projects.’
are unemployment, better healthcare and public infrastructure.
Both government and the banking sector are in agreement that
the country’s problems cannot be solved by government alone.
Nene further added that banks are key players in South Africa’s
development and urged them to get more involved and come up
with long-term visions to assist the government, since they already
have the required skills and infrastructures in place to do so.
‘The government does experience challenges and the financial
services sector is willing to partner with government to arrest
challenges. Banks in particular are willing to explore innovative
ways of funding infrastructure,’ said Cas Coovadia, Managing
Director of The Banking Association South Africa.
Through the summit, the banking sector has made it clear that it
stands ready to partner with government at all levels to ensure that
the infrastructure that is required is funded. But the coordination
of such funding has remained a major challenge as Nxasana puts it:
‘The banking sector welcomes the establishment of the Presidential
Infrastructure Coordination Commission to oversee the huge capital
investment by the South African government. We should, however,
register our concern in that the private sector is no wiser about its
envisaged role and the processes thereto, in the funding process,
except the occasional reference to the important role that the sector
needs to play – often at the level of generalities.’
The banking sector has called on government to engage in
thorough consultation process when it comes to financial modelling
for public-private partnerships and role delineation between
commercial financial institutions and the Development Finance
Institutions. This would be a key driver of successful public-private
partnerships.
Public-private partnerships – in which the public and the private
sector share the financing, risk and reward of a public infrastructure
project – have been unbalanced