Madam Speaker, hon members, I would like to start off on a historical note. Today is the 125th centenary or anniversary of the formation of the Natal Indian Congress which was formed on 22 August 1894. The Natal Indian Congress was one of those organisations that campaigned hard and strongly against the apartheid system, and it is up to us today that we should applaud those who were members and leaders of the Natal Indian Congress because they became part of the congress movement which today is the governing party of our country. [Applause.]
The economic growth and job creation is indeed the apex priority of this administration. We have articulated this time and time again. It is nearly one year since I announced the economic stimulus and recovery package to get the wheels of our economy turning once again. So, it is up to us that we should now take this opportunity to provide a brief report back on what we have achieved in terms of meeting its key objectives.
We said we would implement growth-enhancing reforms in pursuit of igniting economic activity. One of those reforms which we would want to look at is what we have done in relation to the visa regime to attract more tourists and more highly skilled professionals to our country. The Department of Home Affairs recently issued a list of countries that will receive visa waivers, among them countries with high tourism potential from the Middle East. An e-visa system will soon be piloted as part of modernising our current system. The Department of Home Affairs is working with the Department of Higher Education and Training towards refining a list of critical skills that will inform future regulations.
We have introduced trade measures to safeguard key agricultural sectors like the poultry industry, and in the process, protect local jobs. The policy directive for the release of high demand spectrum gazetted on 26 July 2019 will help to draw fresh investment into the digital and telecoms sectors. Towards our goal of making it easier to do business in South Africa through reducing port and rail tariffs, the Ports Regulator in November
announced a tariff decrease of 6% and also decreased container and automotive cargo dues.
We said we would move forward with agrarian reform. Funding to the tune of R3,9 billion has been released to support black commercial farmers through the Land Bank. To promote greater certainty in the use of land for productive activities we have finalised over 1,400 30-year leases.
We said we would revitalise industrial parks and three new parks have been launched in the 2019 financial year in Ekandustria, Garankuwa and Nkowankowa. We said we would reprioritise public spending to support more social infrastructure. We have already exceeded the target of filling over 2 000 critical medical posts to address challenges in the health care system. Between 2018 September and July 2019, the Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, approved upwards of R14 billion in infrastructure funding for roads, human settlements, water infrastructure, schools, student accommodation and public transport.
To support job creation, an amount of R600 million has been provisionally allocated to support rural and township economies. The Employee Tax Incentive has been extended to 2029 to enable more employers to take advantage of its provision to hire more young people.
I recently met the leaders of business, labour and communities at National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac, together with the Deputy President to review progress in the implementation of the Jobs Summit commitments. While there has been progress in some areas, all constituencies agree that the depth of the unemployment crisis means that we have to do more, but more importantly, we have to do it much faster. We have therefore agreed that I, together with Deputy President, will convene regular meetings with all Nedlac constituencies to review progress, and where necessary, take action to resolve problems.
As we outlined in the state of the nation address in June, we are responding to the dire employment situation by addressing the structural weaknesses in our economy, developing skills that
match the needs of the economy, boosting investment and fixing state-owned enterprises, and in particular, our electricity generating enterprise called Eskom. Further measures to reduce our fiscal deficit and debt ratios will be announced in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement by the Minister of Finance in October.
This administration is pursuing a purposeful industrial strategy in which we work closely with social partners to develop master plans for sectors with high potential for growth. Government has already begun work with sectors such as clothing, textiles and footwear, poultry, the sugar industry and steel and downstream metal fabrication. Funding to the tune of R600 million has been allocated over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, to support the clothing and textile sectors.
In June, a number of Chinese companies signed agreements with their South African counterparts to buy more than R25 billion of South African made goods. These will help to boost production, growth and jobs in the local economy. Another opportunity that beckons for us as South Africans is the African Continental Free
Trade Area Agreement, which is planned to come into effect on 1 July next year. This is expected to fundamentally help in reshaping our own the economy.
Already, exports to other African countries support about
250 000 South African jobs. I have just come back from Tanzania, where we entered into a number of agreements with the Tanzanian president in relation to enhancing economic growth between the two countries. We have 228 South African countries operating in Tanzania and therefore African Continental Free Trade Agreement gives them an enormous platform to export finished goods from our shores here into the rest of the continent.
To improve the levels of investment in the economy, we will host the Second South Africa Investment Conference from 5 to 7 November. This will build on the success of the first conference where commitments of some R300 billion were made by local and international companies in support of our R1,2 trillion investment drive. Of the R300 billion committed at the inaugural conference, around R250 billion worth of projects are in the implementation phase.
There has been a significant turnaround inflows of foreign direct investment, surging from R26,8 billion in 2017 to R70,7 billion in 2018. We are working on a set of priority reforms to improve the ease of doing business and reducing the cost of compliance. Technical working groups comprised of officials in the various relevant departments have begun work on five of the indicators with regard to starting a business, paying taxes, registering property, trading across borders, and dealing with construction permits.
One of the constraints to growth in our economy is the high level of economic concentration. Earlier this year, I signed the Competition Amendment Act into law, and major sections of this Act have come into operation already. The new laws will give the competition authorities the ability to address abuse of dominance and high concentration that keeps small and emerging companies out of being key players in our economy.
The combined efforts of DTI and the IDC and partnerships with the private sector are expected to provide support of well over R40 billion to black industrialists over the next five years,
thus enhancing our radical economic transformation project. The IDC is expected to provide R11 billion in support of women- empowered enterprises alone, and further funds will be made available for youth enterprises. Through spatial interventions like special economic zones, reviving local industrial parks, business centres, digital hubs and township and village enterprises, we are bringing economic development to local areas.
We are working to develop small and medium enterprises in our cities, townships and rural areas and create market places where they trade the products that they make. If we are to achieve the South Africa we want, we need to forge durable partnerships with government, business, labour and communities as well. Government is hard at work to create an enabling environment, use public resources wisely and invest in developing the country's human potential. In arriving at this, we have been listening and interacting with a number of role players - listening very closely to the suggestions that they are making and we implement those that we find have efficacy. Business and labour needs to
act together to promote our country's national strategic objectives.
Early in the sixth administration, I engaged with the National Planning Commission to tap into the collective wisdom embodied in that esteemed collective of South Africans. In playing their advisory role, the National Planning Commission continues to develop research and insights to support strategies towards inclusive growth. There are no easy or quick solutions to low growth and unemployment. This is an important part that we need to be aware of.
When we introduced the economic recovery and stimulus package, we said that this is a package with South African characteristics. It was not your typical stimulus plan which is akin to what is done in other countries because in other countries they have quite a lot of money and pump money into the economy to stimulate economic activity and growth, as well as to stimulate demand. In our case we reprioritised and we had to come up with measures. These interventions take time to gain traction, by their very nature, and we are already seeing them
gaining time or gaining traction and all we would say is that it require hard work, smart policy choices, commitment and above all, close cooperation among all social partners. We have embarked on a journey and this journey will become clearer as we move on in the next month. Thank you very much, hon Speaker. [Applause.]