NEED TO OVERCOME TRUST DEFICIT BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECTOR

NEED TO OVERCOME TRUST DEFICIT BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECTOR

 By BRIAN KAJENGO

 It is imperative to overcome the trust deficit that exists between government and the private sector in order to move the economy of South Africa forward. This is according to the Deputy Director-General responsible for Industrial Policy Development at the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), Mr Garth Strachan. He was speaking at a launch of an R8 million air separation plant by Air Products South Africa in Vanderbijlpark today.

“We have to overcome the trust deficit that often exists between government and the private sector, especially the manufacturing sector. This includes the dti building its own capacity to work much more closely with the private sector to  undertake deep-dive granular research and information-gathering to ensure that the right regulatory policy mix is in place and is not a barrier, and that the opportunities which government sees at a helicopter level are made available to the private sector. Successful industrialised countries are characterised by very strong, mutually beneficial relationship between government and the private sector,” said Strachan.

He added that the range of industrial policy support measures that government provides, which includes multi-billion rand of incentives, have deployed with a stronger focus on dynamic companies and reciprocal conditionality. This will enable the country to raise its productivity, competitiveness, export capabilities, energy efficiency and carbon mitigation.

Strachan also said in the long term carbon mitigation strategy and energy efficiency will become a global competitive advantage for the economies of many countries.

“We in the dti support energy efficiency and the carbon mitigation measures being introduced by government. We will do our best to ensure that the roll-out of carbon tax measures is calibrated in such a way that the measures are not an additional shock to our manufacturing sector,” said Strachan.

Strachan added that the new Air Products facility, named G-plant, would contribute significantly to the gas industry in particular and the economy of South Africa in general.

The plant said to be the largest capital investment made by an industrial gas company in the last ten years on the African sub-continent in the gas industry. It is part of a long-term investment pipeline that Air Products South Africa has embarked on, of just under R2 billion. The plant has a capacity to manufacture 1100 tonnes of gas product per day, the bulk of which supplied directly to Sasol.