{"id":202772,"date":"2021-09-22T10:35:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T08:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/manufacturing-industrialisation-key-to-unlocking-economic-growth\/"},"modified":"2021-09-22T10:35:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T08:35:26","slug":"manufacturing-industrialisation-key-to-unlocking-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/manufacturing-industrialisation-key-to-unlocking-economic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturing, industrialisation key to unlocking economic growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says manufacturing and industrialisation remain key to stimulating South Africa\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

He was speaking during the launch of a book on the transformation of the economy\u2019s structure and industrial development.<\/p>\n

Industrialisation is identified as a key pillar in President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan unveiled last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this pillar we are intervening decisively to drive strategic localisation, repurpose South Africa\u2019s manufacturing as well as strengthen regional and global trade. Ultimately our goal is to significantly increase South Africa\u2019s manufacturing output, reduce the proportion of imported intermediary and finished goods and expand the capacity of local suppliers,\u201d Minister Godongwana said.<\/p>\n

Godongwana highlighted that the manufacturing industry has shrunk from at least 22% of the country\u2019s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to about 12%.<\/p>\n

This meant that the country is now importing more manufactured goods to the \u201cdecimation\u201d of the country\u2019s own manufacturing industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manufacturing sector\u2019s capital base has shrunk \u2013 from R677.7 billion in 2008 to the current R545.9 billion in real terms. These numbers speak of the decimation of our industrial base. They also speak to significant job losses, widening income inequality and poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur economy continues to suck-in imports. This is in part because of a weak industrial base. This is also a reflection of an imbalanced growth model, which is unsustainable and keeps our economy vulnerable,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n

The Minister said to mitigate this, government has embarked on the restructuring of the economy back to industrial development with emphasise placed back on the \u201chigh growth, high productivity and greater labour\u201d absorbing manufacturing industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cManufacturing has strong backward and forward linkages to the rest of the economy which make it a significant driver of demand across the economy. Equally, the sector\u2019s ability to interface between agrarian and resource extracting economies and introduce new products and technologies allows it to move the economy forward \u2013 from low to high productivity activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Godongwana added that this would auger well for job creation for the country which currently has an official unemployment rate of at least 34%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, in an environment, such as ours, where structural unemployment remains stubbornly high, manufacturing has a critical role to play in expanding our skills base and helping us deal with unemployment. Ultimately\u2026industrial development is critical for our aspirations, as a nation, for higher levels of economic growth, job creation, transformation, and development,\u201d Godongwana said.<\/p>\n

Impact of economic policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Minister highlighted the fact that policy plays a role in the growth and structural change of the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Economic] policy is a powerful instrument, capable of influencing and shaping the orientation and structure of the economy. For instance, the pace and scale of infrastructure roll out \u2013 which is an outcome of the effectiveness of the use of fiscal resources \u2013 has a significant impact on the competitiveness of local firms and the ability of their products to access global value and supply chains.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqually, [government] investments in new technologies, innovation, health, education, training and up-skilling of the workforce \u2013 all of which are linked to the outcomes of fiscal policy \u2013 also have a direct bearing on competitiveness and inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother example is that the pace of the vaccine rollout programme has profound implications on the ability of our economy and industries to operate at full capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Policy implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Godongwana said government is striving for economic policy consistency and certainty in the economy and making sure that policy results in real action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this regard, significant progress is being made to towards ensuring greater policy and regulatory certainty in important economic sectors such as water and sanitation, energy and telecommunications.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinked to this is the work we are doing to strengthen the capacity of the state not only to implement policy, but also to intervene in the economy in a manner that does not hinder but enhances industrial growth and development,\u201d Minister Godongwana said. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says manufacturing and industrialisation remain key to stimulating South Africa\u2019s economy. He was speaking during the launch of a book on the transformation of the economy\u2019s structure and industrial development. Industrialisation is identified as a key pillar in President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan unveiled last year. \u201cThrough this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-202772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/manufacturing-industrialisation-key-to-unlocking-economic-growth.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}