It would be dangerous for the government to stay out of the South African economy, taking into account the country’s history, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Thursday.
Speaking at the launch of the government’s National Industrial Policy Framework and Action Plan at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Mpahlwa said the plan would help the government address some of the legacies and structural issues in South African society and the economy.
”I think for a country like South Africa, with its legacy of skewed and arrested development, where markets were constructed first and foremost to serve the particular purposes of the time, a view that would see government staying out of the economy would be doubly dangerous,” he said.
The Industrial Policy Framework sets out the government’s broad approach to industrialisation and industrial policy.
The action plan, approved during last month’s mid-year Cabinet lekgotla (meeting), identifies four lead sectors that will be the central focus of the immediate implementation of the policy framework.
The capital, transport equipment and metal fabrication sector; the automotive and components sector; the chemicals, plastic fabrication and pharmaceutical sector; and the forestry, pulp and paper and furniture sector make up the four lead sectors.
The action plan highlights a ”major opportunity” to grow the capital, transport equipment and metal fabrications sector on the back of the public expenditure programme.
The plan also identifies an opportunity to double vehicle production to 1,2-million units by 2020.
In the chemicals, plastic fabrication and pharmaceutical sector, the plan sets out measures to promote beneficiation of minerals into primary products for exports.
For the forestry, pulp and paper and furniture sector the action plan highlights the potential to bring jobs and income to poor and rural communities because the sector’s activities takes place largely in the rural areas.
Mpahlwa said government would use a variety of policy measures to support the plan — including investment to update ageing machinery and equipment stock, industrial upgrading, support for industry and cluster-specific infrastructure, and addressing monopoly pricing. — Sapa