CAPE TOWN - Budget funds to
stimulate targeted areas of the
manufacturing sector could soon
be implemented if the Cabinet
lekgoda approves the plans next
month.
Trade and Industry Minister
Rob Davies will take a proposed
"high-impact" industrial polioaction
plan to the Cabinet lekgotla
in two weeks* time.
Financial provision for the
implementation of the three-year
rolling-action plan is likely to be
made in the national budget, to be
labled in Parliament by Finance
Minister Pravin Gordhan in
February. The plan is pan of an
overall strategy to put the economy
on a labour-absorbing
growth path with emphasis on
value-added production and highquality
services.
Already the Cabinet has
adopted a developmental ly orientated
trade policy under which
SA's tariff regime will be driven by
industrial policy imperatives and
not by an a priori commitment to
either high or low tariffs.
Davies said yesterday that
fairly extensive consultation over
the action plan had taken place
and that there was quite a lot of
buy-in by stakeholders, including l
the private sector. The plan was "a
pretty substantial piece of work
with quite detailed proposals for
what we need to do".
A key priority of the industrial
policy action plan, he said, would
be to ensure the local procurement
of goods and services
required for SA*s R787bn infrastructural
development programme
being undertaken by.
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and Transnet
Davies said the current
requirements of tenders did not
promote local procurement sufficiently
and there was a tendency
for procurers to rush abroad to
sign contracts with those that
could supply what was wanted
immediately.
The government's competitive
supplier development programme
had had some effect on
encouraging local procurement,
but not enough.
He emphasised that no country
had successfully achieved a
job-creating growth path without
a dynamic industrial sector vigorously
supported by development
finance institutions.
SA wanted to achieve a similarly
ambitious, effective, highimpact
industrial policy.
"Our aim is to move SA into
that kind of territory. We have
identified a number of areas
where we think we can make
headway, for example industries
related to the infrastructure
development programme.
"We will make quite significant
proposals about new approaches
to procurement to ensure we get a
larger local industrial development
opportunity from the infrastructure
development programme.
There will be a number
of proposals around procurement,
on- and off-budget industrial
financing "as well as ... quality
assurance and technical infrastructure,
which are increasingly
becoming important."
Davies said the Industrial
Development Corporation would
play a key role and the government
was considering ways to
strengthen its capital base. Budget
and off-budget incentives and
regulatory benefits would form
part of the package. Other high-
3pi$fity sectors include green
industries and agri-processing.
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