Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has welcomed the country's National Development Plan (NDP) which was released by the National Planning Commission recently.
"The President welcomed the focus on reducing poverty and inequality, and the depth of the proposals," Cabinet spokesperson Jimmy Manyi said on Thursday. He was speaking following the last ordinary Cabinet meeting of the year held on Wednesday.
The plan emphasises ideas such as growth and prosperity as the best way to fight poverty and unemployment, and involving individuals and communities in their own development.
This would require the State to extend opportunities to all through excellent education and other essential services, and create the right conditions for investment and job creation.
The lengthy NDP document deals with nine national issues that the commission, headed by Minister in the PresidencyTrevor Manuel, has identified as the country's top priorities.They include widespread unemployment, ailing infrastructure, low standards of education and exclusion of the poor from mainstream development.
On Thursday, Manyi said Cabinet had also welcomed the broad public participation process and dialogue that was being undertaken to develop and refine the plan.
The proposals were open for public comment, discussion and strengthening, he said. The consultation process will run until early next year, with the plan expected to be presented to Cabinet for adoption in May.
Meanwhile, Cabinet has approved the National Evaluation Framework, which officials say aims to assess whether government plans were resulting in their intended outcomes.
The policy will also see the rolling out of three-year and annual national and provincial plans focusing on five key priorities of health, education, job creation, crime prevention and rural development.
