Banker S.A. September 2012 | Page 26

BANKING SUMMIT Cas Coovadia, The Banking Association: ‘Banks in particular are willing to explore innovative ways of funding infrastructure,’ stakeholders including banks. We need to come up with plans to finance and maintain it. Many skills exist in the banking sector and we need to put our heads together and think out of the box to create sustainable development that will create sufficient jobs,’ said Nene. Sihlalo Jordan of Deloitte said that the true cost of the infrastructure is going to be commitment by government and the private sector in making sure that the NDP is a success. He said the main challenge will be to understand the South African population and their needs to create a social investment plan that will create jobs and make sure that people do business in South Africa. Andre Smit, Senior Policy Advisor at the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA), said that all stakeholders involved in the implementation of the NDP needed to regulate stability and promote healthy investing. ‘In the R700 billion we have put into infrastructure we need to create relations that will coordinate efforts of improving our society.’ 24 THE BANKER Edition 3   Financial analyst at the Department of Public Enterprises, Jacqueline Molisane said that the summit had played an important role in creating a close relationship between the private sector and government. She said this will also encourage state-owned enterprises to commit themselves in strengthening and enhancing the roles they play in our societies.  ‘There needs to be a shift from short-term to long-term strategic purpose of projects,’ emphasised Ravi Naidoo, group executive for development planning at DBSA. He said that a lot of work still needs to be done to create a long-term purpose [