Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma says the support of big business for the Department of Trade and Industry’s flagship Black Industrialists Programme will go a long way to building the country’s economy.
“Our aim is to promote and enable the participation of black people in the manufacturing sectors of the economy to become giants through support from government and other related institutions.
“With the support of big business, this transformative programme will succeed,” said President Zuma.
He was addressing the annual convention of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) in Midrand on Thursday.
The Black Industrialists Programme was launched by the dti in August this year, through which government said it would create 100 black industrialists. Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Mzwandile Masina on Tuesday said the department has so far registered 18 qualifying black industrialists in sectors including agriculture and agro-processing, manufacturing, beneficiation and oil and gas to grow the South African economy.
Deputy Minister Masina said the number of those participating in the black industrialists’ initiative is subject to increase, as the department has opened its doors for applications.
“Once we have processed everything, we will call a press conference so that people will know which criteria were used, how it was evaluated, how those people qualified and what sort of assistance will they be receiving from government,” he said.
The Deputy Minister said the department will not stop at 100 black industrialists, but the number will be up-scaled with time as the department strives for job creation.
Operation Phakisa Phase Two
President Zuma also announced at the Sacci convention that the country’s ocean economy strategy, dubbed Operation Phakisa, will next month have the launch of its second phase.
The President recently released delivery plans for Operation Phakisa One, which looks at unlocking the economic potential of the country’s ocean economy. Through Operation Phakisa, government will implement ocean economy projects which are expected to contribute more than R20 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2019.
The President on Thursday said phase two of Operation Phakisa will focus on building “ideal clinics” for South Africa.
“Next month, we will launch Operation Phakisa 2, which will focus on building ideal clinics in our country. Teams from business, government, labour and academia will grapple with one key question for six weeks … what constitutes an ideal clinic in our health system? At the end of six weeks we will release their findings to the public,” said President Zuma.
The President said they have been requested to look at Operation Phakisa Mining and are seriously considering this. – SAnews.gov.za
