Hon Chairperson, I would like to start by thanking all the hon members for a very detailed set of comments, some useful ideas and the very rich debate that we have had. Thank you.
The opportunity of a Budget Vote is an opportunity to set out our vision, to hear the thoughts and ideas that come from other parties, to hear the thoughts and ideas that come from the ruling party, and to take the pulse of whether or not we are in fact doing what we set out to do.
What has come out of this discussion is helpful. Across the different parties there is recognition of the centrality of the New Growth Path; that one can't just look at one department's budget in isolation from what government as a whole seeks to do. That is very helpful. In that context, for example, the hon Ntuli spoke about the role of development finance institutions and how they need to connect more actively with state-owned enterprises and the potential that that unlocks.
The hon Coleman called the New Growth Path a very powerful framework; something that brings together, that connects the different parts of government. The hon Marais said that the New Growth Path must be a catalyst to support competitiveness - and we've placed a competitiveness package on the table.
The hon Ngonyama said that the NGP aims to create five million jobs over the next 10 years, which really captures an essential part of it. The hon Singh said that it was a credible plan for those five million jobs. The hon Swart said that he supported the principle of the New Growth Path, but also the shift from consumption to a production-led growth path.
All of them were really speaking of rising to the national challenge in terms of how to enthuse all South Africans that we've got a plan - that we can, if we work together, achieve the five million new jobs by 2020. Thank you very much for that.
A number of specific areas came up, areas that, I think, by their nature require ongoing discussion, reflection and debate. As we get consensus on key areas within society, we lay the basis for the long-term consensus that you see in fast-growing economies. Let us take the issue that came up on the role of the private sector. The private sector is crucial to development. Consider that today, of the 13 million jobs in the economy, about 80% are in the private sector. If we even doubled the number of jobs in the public sector, we would not nearly achieve our five million jobs.
So, for very practical reasons the private sector is a crucial part of what we need to do. But is that the same as saying you need a weak state, that there is no role for the public sector, that the state can stand aside and simply leave market forces to determine the future of society? Indeed not. I think we have a broad consensus that we need both a smart state and a dynamic, competitive private sector.
The New Growth Path - what different government departments are doing and what different Cabinet Ministers will be announcing in the next 10 weeks - is about that smart state. It's about how to get the state working, recognise the challenges and say, "Let's do things differently." We are being led by the call by President Zuma: "Do things differently." [Applause.] To simply do what we have always done in the hope that the results will be different is not realistic.
How are we going about doing things differently? What we have laid before the Extended Public Committee today, before Parliament, is not only the detail of our own budget, but also how we are connecting the different parts of government.
Indeed, we use the analogy that effective Cabinet governance is less like a cricket team - and today we all don't want to be like a particular cricket team where one batsman is at the crease and it's him alone, and in this case it's only him at the level of international cricket - and more, if you want to use the sport analogy, like soccer. Cabinet governance is fluid, where the ball is passed among members to achieve the final goal.
In that context, let me make the point that the Industrial Development Corporation, and what we've said today about the IDC, is an example of smart government. The IDC was at the absolute heart of the setting up and financing of Sasol. Today, Sasol is South Africa's biggest industrial company. It has a global presence, it has world-class technology and it is funded by the public sector. I could also give the example of the V&A Waterfront, one of our very significant tourist attractions, which was originally bankrolled and funded by the Transnet pension funds. It shows the connection between what a smart state can do and what it can unlock in the private sector.
The lesson, to the extent that there's an overriding lesson regarding fast- growing economies, is that they are not stuck in the old debates about state versus market. They see a connection, a partnership, between these. What we have done with the new growth path is to capture the nature of that partnership.
The hon Marais asked the question, "Where are the labour-absorbing sectors?" Well, in the New Growth Path we set them out in detail. We supplement them in the Industrial Policy Action Plan, Ipap2, which is the manufacturing driver of the New Growth Path. Areas like agro-processing - what we can do in agriculture - can dramatically alter the employment landscape. Agriculture and agro-processing are very, very labour absorbing.
It's in what we say about downstream minerals. If we only mine our products, then the labour intensity of the capital investment is limited. But, if we can master what is required to get to what industrial economists call Stage 4 beneficiation - the production of consumer and capital goods - then you unlock large numbers of jobs for the energy you consume and the capital that you deploy.
That is where the details are. They are in parts of manufacturing. Take the auto sector, for example. Of course, the auto assemblers, the original equipment manufacturers, OEMs, are very capital intensive. They provide the market for the component manufacturing, and the real jobs are created in component manufacturing. So, when we set out in the New Growth Path that we want to strengthen auto components, that gives you an idea of where we are going. I can take you through sector by sector. But this is not simply about listing a set of sectors. We go one step further. We say that when the state deploys resources through the IDC, for example, let's measure the cost per job, and let's increasingly shift capital to more labour-absorbing activities. Look at the example that we gave today of the IDC jobs bond that was issued in partnership with the UIF fund: very, very useful employment generation has come out of it.
A number of colleagues have mentioned the question of dialogue. I want to assure the hon Marais that talking - dialogue - sitting down, is not inaction. It's really getting that consensus that you need in society to make things work. Skills are crucial to development, but the state cannot just publish its skills plan without getting the buy-in of business and labour. They are crucial; you need dialogue for that. In fact, dialogue for us is the way to get action, buy-in and consensus.
The hon Gcwabaza raised the issue of Africa. One of the things that the New Growth Path, our work in the department and across government is seeking to do is to reorient ourselves to the opportunities on this continent. They are enormous. I can give you their details, as the hon Gcwabaza has done.
I can point you to the fact that over the past 10 years, from 2000 to 2010, 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world were on this continent, African economies. I can tell you that in terms of International Monetary Fund projections seven of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world, between now and 2015, will be on the African continent. I can tell you that between now and 2015 we will see an increase in African Gross Domestic Product of $500 billion, an enormous sum, which is equivalent to two full South African economies. This continent is finding its feet; there are opportunities here and we can go forward very, very effectively if we direct ourselves at these opportunities.
I want to conclude by saying that we must build on our strengths. President Zuma is leading a delegation of Ministers to the Brics summit, which takes place on the island of Hainan in China. We are a small economy and a small population in terms of the Brics group - 50 million people. The next biggest country is four times our size. But let us celebrate the strengths that we have and where we can go.
Recently, I looked at comparative data for the Brics economies. I think something that will delight hon members is that when we expressed GDP - all the goods and services produced in an economy - as a multiple of employment, in other words, what the output per employee is, some very interesting things emerged.
In 2007, using World Bank data, the average output per South African worker was equivalent to that of a Russian worker. The average output in South Africa was a quarter more than Brazil; four times as much as China per employee; seven times as much as India per employee. In 2008 Russia overtook us when the petroleum price went up and the Russian GDP increased, but this gives you an indication that we have some strengths that we can celebrate. We have to rise to the challenge of five million new jobs; work together in this; build the partnerships with the business community and with organised labour. Thank you very much for all the contributions that you have made today. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.