The government needed to take a series of firm and decisive steps to attract the direct foreign investment needed for job-creating economic growth, the Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on trade and industry, Dr Pierre Rabie, said on Monday.
In a statement released in Parliament, Rabie listed ten ”action steps” needed to make the South African economy more competitive in attracting direct foreign investment.
The steps included a full-scale review of the country’s trade regime, the rebalancing of labour relations to reflect prevailing trends and making minimum-wage determination more friendly to job creation.
Rabie said for South Africans to have more job opportunities and more freedom to pursue their economic aspirations, the instruments of economic opportunity needed to be as varied and as freely accessible as possible.
”Red-tape must be limited to an absolute minimum and government policies need to encourage access to investment in job-creating projects in as many areas of our economy as possible,” he said.
Rabie said the government had not been successful in determining to what extent and in what manner it should intervene in the economy to make it conducive to job-creating economic growth.
He said the ten steps would create the necessary environment for the investment needed for economic growth and job creation.
The other seven steps proposed by Rabie were:
Trade arrangements should be administrated through the correct and properly capacitated government channels or trade institutions;
Trade arrangements such as export promotion or incentive programmes should be crafted and revised timeously;
Pressure on capacity-stretched government departments should not be exacerbated through compulsory disclosure requirements;
Regulations that do not inspire confidence in an open and free economy and should be avoided at all costs;
Regulations that would make South Africa less welcoming to foreign direct investment should only be implemented if it is in the best interests of the absolute majority of South Africans;
Fiscal policy should be revised to bring taxes on profits in line with other more competitive countries;
Best practice with respect to the administration procedures involved with corporate tax, unemployment insurance and VAT in more competitive countries needs to be investigated and implemented.
— Sapa