South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa officially closed the Western Cape Metropolitan black economic empowerment (BEE) conference late on Tuesday, warning against a tendency to believe that barriers to BEE were insurmountable in some sectors of the economy.
Addressing delegates, Moosa commended the joint efforts of the Western Cape government and big business for cooperating in such a huge and significant project.
“It is even more rewarding to witness the commitment of all stakeholders in the economic sector given the reality that, truly successful empowerment will only occur when business and government agree and cooperate in its implementation,” said the Minster.
The two-day conference discussed issues ranging from broad based black economic strategy issues, the Mining Charter, preferential procurement and the development of the Western Cape province’s economic strategy. Delegates also discussed infrastructure challenges and the unlocking of opportunities within the Western Cape Province. Effectiveness of the charters, strategies and policies in specific sectors that are economically significant to the Western cape also topped the agenda of the conference.
The Minister welcomed the conference’s resulting resolutions, saying: “The resounding message emanating from your conference deliberations on this subject reinforces our unwavering tenacity to transform the economy of this country, in all its facets, from one that is exclusive and elitist to one that reflects the
demographics of the country and more representative.”
He added that sectors of economic transformation needed to embrace the empowerment agenda and understand that it can only grow with their cooperation
“As we face the challenge of BEE, we need to make sure that we balance the need for business triumph and prosperity with the empowerment of small and emerging enterprises.”
He also warned against a tendency to believe that barriers to empowerment in some sectors were “insurmountable”. Urging everyone to take part in the BEE agenda, he outlined strategies undertaken by his own department to transform the tourism industry.
“For our own part in the tourism industry, we have set our own national transformation agenda in the areas of ownership, skills development and capacity building in the transformation strategy for the South African tourism Industry,” he concluded. – I-Net Bridge