President Cyril Ramaphosa has held a virtual meeting with members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council to discuss the country’s economic recovery in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Council is a non-statutory and independent body chaired by the President and brings together prominent economists and technical experts drawn from academia, the private sector, labour, community, think tanks and other constituencies.
The Council was appointed in October 2019 for a three-year term.
President Ramaphosa had invited the Council to make a contribution on the work currently underway in government to finalise an economic reconstruction and recovery plan.
The Council on Wednesday emphasised the need for a focused and action-oriented programme with a few central priorities to lift the country out of the current crisis.
The Council supported government’s emphasis on employment as the key priority for the country as it emerges from Coronavirus and called for all policy interventions to be directed towards protecting existing jobs and creating new ones on a significant scale.
The President was accompanied by several Ministers from Cabinet’s economic cluster, who will use the contributions of the Council to strengthen government’s plan.
President Ramaphosa will today chair the first meeting of the NEDLAC Forum for Economic Recovery.
This forum is expected to bring together government, organised labour, business and the community constituency to forge a common national plan to drive reconstruction and recovery.
“The devastation caused by Coronavirus means that we cannot continue in the same manner as before. There is broad agreement on where we must focus our efforts.
“The task now is to work more closely together to implement those actions that will have the greatest effect on the jobs and livelihoods of South Africans,” President Ramaphosa said. – SAnews.gov.za
