MINISTER DAVIES AIM TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY

MINISTER DAVIES AIM TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY

BY BRIAN KAJENGO

Minister Rob Davis edged South Africans to tackle poverty by creating employment.

“We noted that growth in the pre-crisis period largely been driven by consumption orientated, rather than productive sectors and that manufacturing output had remained below potential, with the result that imports were filling gaps in the domestic market that ought to have been occupied by domestic products. The combination of these elements contributed to the skewed pattern of the economy’s development, including in spatial and racial terms, resulting in the entrenchment of extreme levels of inequality and poverty.” Davies said.

Daives promises that dti needs to implement a higher impact industrial policy that would respond to the imminent threat of de-industrialisation and lay a basis for the creation of a stronger industrial base.

He said dti introduced in 2009 the first of our annual Industrial Policy Action Plans covering actions be undertaken in the financial year in question as well as the outer two financial years.

“By 2014, the end of the term, we could report that the Industrial Policy Action Plan had become the centrepiece of the dti’s work with all our actions being coordinated or aligned to it. We could show that through our direct efforts we had stemmed the inexorable decline of the clothing and textile sector and witnessed significant investment and growth in the automotives industry. We could also show, amongst others, that our interventions transformed the Business Processing and Off-shoring sector and that the film industry was yielding significant investment and jobs, particularly for the youth.” Davies said.