Sibongakonke Shoba
22 July 2008
Johannesburg — GAUTENG Premier Mbhazima Shilowa says growing the provincial economy 8% by 2014 remains one of his top priorities as he finishes his term of office.
This would be achieved by "laying the foundations" for growth, he said in an interview with Business Day yesterday.
Growing the economy 8% by 2014 looked impossible in 2004, but now the target looked low.
"Maybe one of the things that need to be reviewed by the next government is whether the target should be 8% or 10% by 2014. But whatever the number is, we say it must grow on average.
"We don't want a spike of 8% in 2014 and 5% in 2015. You want it to grow at a sustainable rate. You can even have a spike of 10%, but by 2014 we want to say it grew at an average of this rate," Shilowa said.
The Gauteng economy grew 5,5% in 2004, 5,3% in 2005 and 6% last year.
There would be announcements on investments that would have a positive effect on the economy.
One was made last night by finance MEC Paul Mashatile who said the provincial government had signed a deal with the A1 Grand Prix to have a race in Gauteng for the next three years. This would boost tourism and create jobs. Roads leading to Kyalami race track would be improved.
"It's not just about car racing in Kyalami. It's about tourism that will take place and investment that will take place on the roads," Shilowa said.
The event has been hosted in Durban for the past three years.
Shilowa said the A1 Grand Prix would give Gauteng international exposure, with about 8-million people expected to view the event on TV across the world. "A1 GP will position Gauteng as a preferred tourist destination. The event takes the province closer to the achievement of its strategic objective of increasing Gauteng's share of the tourism market to more that 50% of all international arrivals," Shilowa said.
Mashatile said the deal signalled the development of motorsport as one of the sectors with huge potential to grow the province's economy.
Shilowa said the 11 Blue IQ projects, including the Gautrain rapid rail link, had helped grow the provincial economy.
The Renault-Nissan R1bn investment in Rosslyn automotive supplier park in Pretoria was one of the catalysts for economic growth.
The first Gautrain train set had been completed. "Hopefully, by November or next year, assembling will happen, not in Derby (Britain) but in Nigel (Ekurhuleni). Bringing much needed employment in that area, including Springs and Benoni."
Shilowa said this could be followed by the refurbishment of Metrorail trains to make travelling by train more attractive.
Shilowa said his government was on track in contributing to halving unemployment by 2014.
He said the skills development programme focusing on learnerships would also reach its targets. "(But) this is not to say that all the 'to do list' is about things that one needs to finish. There are other things which you could never finish, but which you need to make a contribution."
Shilowa said one of those was crime and safety issues.
"It's difficult to achieve the required progress because you find that you identify certain priority crimes ... as you achieve on these issues, you have other crimes emerging as priority crimes," he said.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Positive thinking alone will not do it.