Unemployment in our country is unacceptably high. We have identified it as the biggest risk that our country is facing at the moment, and this is particularly so amongst young people. We are therefore moving forward with various interventions. Last year we said that we have embarked on the Youth Employment Service project, and that is gaining traction. It is attracting a number of young people and a number of young people are participating.
We however have a number of other interventions that we are going to embark upon with a number of other social partners. The Jobs Summit interventions are also aimed at precisely addressing the unemployment challenge and these interventions are being implemented as we speak, and the interventions that we are also making in relation to addressing youth unemployment are also being implemented and we have set up a programme management office in the Presidency to focus specifically on the issue of youth unemployment and we are working with various partners, the private sector, labour and various government departments.
We believe that we will be able to address it effectively, but more importantly, we need to be creating that conducive environment in our country for investments to take place. It is for this reason that we are moving with great confidence to the investment conference in November where we believe we will be able to attract more investments to come into our country.
Early indications are that a number of investors are actually very keen to come and invest in our country, including local investors who are already panel beating their various proposals for further investments in our economy. Much as we are, we are seeing an increase in unemployment, but we are also seeing a glimmer of some hope because those who had given up looking for work are now beginning in earnest to look for work, and hence the numbers have gone up. Clearly, we have to move much faster - much quicker, because every year the number of unemployed young people just increases the number of the unemployed people in our country. We are addressing this.
All I would say is that this is a national challenge. All of us need to put our heads together - work together to see the extent
to which we can address this problem. It is a major risk. What we have embarked upon, in the form of the stimulus package with South African characteristics is meant to address precisely this. What we are going to be announcing in the next few months is going to be aimed at addressing precisely all these. Daily, we are preoccupied with the best interventions that we can embark upon to address the unemployment challenge. We are working on it, much as the entire world is now facing low growth, we would like to boost more and more growth.
As I said, we look to the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement as one of those boosters for economic growth in our country and we are therefore calling upon businesses to look at this as a great opportunity, because many countries as we travel around the continent are saying that they would rather be trading with us as South Africa rather than trading with other trading partners that are far off in other countries offshore.
We have a great opportunity and we can crank back to life our manufacturing base and reindustrialise our country and get the skills set that is needed to operate in our economy. All these
interventions are interlinked and we will be seeking to make sure that they produce the ends that are required to get our economy moving forward. Thank you, Madam Speaker.