Cape Town | Tuesday
LAST week he seemed to stray dangerously close to the maligned camp of Aids dissidents, but this week SA trade and industry minister Alec Erwin said his department would be approaching companies to gain a clearer understanding of the impact of Aids.
The minister has been criticised for ignoring the epidemic in a recently-unveiled plan, which aims to accelerate economic growth and boost the competitiveness of the local economy.
Erwin said on SAFM radio last week that the disease did not seem to be having a ”severe impact” on the skills level and life expectancy of the workforce.
He also poured scorn on independent studies, including one released by labour consultants Andrew Levy and Associates last week that estimated about 30% of the country’s workforce will be HIV-positive in 2005.
Briefing MPs on a new government plan to boost the economy’s competitiveness, he said South Africa needed more accurate information on the impact of the disease.
One area that needed to be looked at was what plans to put in place to counter a possible loss of skills.
”If there are changes in the workforce, we must deal with it.
”We need to identify what is happening… what we don’t have is accurate records, and we must get them.”
The department could look at company staff records, as well as pension fund and medical aid spending, to examine the effect of Aids.
Erwin was speaking on day one of six days of public hearings conducted jointly by the National Assembly’s trade and industry committee and the National Council of Provinces’ economics committee on the new integrated manufacturing strategy (IMS).
Speaking on Tuesday, Erwin said the South African economy had immense potential to become a global manufacturer, but government, companies and labour had to now ”move away from dialogue to collective action”.
”I am very confident that South Africa can become within the next five to ten years a major manufacturer.”
The country remained a net importer of manufactured products, despite a significant decline in these over the past few years.
Some of the major problems facing the economy were a shortage of skills and a decline in investment in technology and research and development.
The minister said he supported Education Minister Kader Asmal’s efforts to rationalise tertiary education.
Universities were lagging behind in providing the skills the economy needed, while technikons were ”catching up”.
Universities should move towards sciences and away from arts degrees, he suggested.
Erwin said the department hoped, through the IMS, to provide ”packages of customised services and products” that had been developed through partnerships with stakeholders.
It would interact with companies to identify specific factors that could increase exports and growth, and — through trade delegations — help attract investors. – Sapa