South Africa’s President: the economy is “weathering the storm”

President Jacob Zuma unveiled initiatives to boost SA’s economic growth

The private and public sectors, civil society, government, labour and business will join forces to fund small entrepreneurs, as President Zuma declared after receiving a governmental report on ways to kick-start economic growth in the country.

“We recognise as government that there are also some domestic constraints that we must attend to. We are pleased that labour has joined these talks which are aimed at arresting slow growth and to save and create jobs,” commented the President.

Despite South Africa slowly recovering from the global financial crisis, the level of economic growth did not reach the anticipated rates, partially due to difficult global economic situation. Measures such as collaboration between the main economy sectors in the country are considered to be a mandatory step to address the South African economic goal.

Simultaneously, SA’s government aims to implement the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Medium-Term Strategic Framework within the next five years.

“We have responded to the crisis by introducing the 9-Point Plan to boost growth and employment, within the framework of the NDP. The 9-Point Plan focuses on energy, infrastructure development, agriculture and agro-processing, mineral beneficiation, a higher impact Industrial Policy Action Plan, small business development and encouraging private sector investment, amongst others. In the last year, substantial progress has been made in these areas. We remain optimistic that we will be able to weather the storm, especially if we continue working together in this manner,” President Jacob Zuma concluded.

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