Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, the IFP notes with great concern that the transition from the Mbeki administration to the incumbent Zuma administration has shown that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Despite all the radicalism of Polokwane and the announced policy shift, what we are witnessing two years on, is a startling continuity. [Interjections.] I will spell out its benefits as well as its drawbacks.
To prove this point as a background to my contribution to the debate on the current Department of Trade and Industry budget, I will quote the Finance Minister's recent pledge to -
... maintain prudent macroeconomic policies that promote a favourable environment for investment and job creation through low stable inflation and interest rates.
Among other policy announcements, the Minister confirmed an exchange rate policy that will further ease the way for imports while making life more onerous for our exporters. The obvious outcome is a growing current account deficit.
The Minister of Finance showed a great deal of innovation, which was mirrored by his colleague in the Department of Trade and Industry, Minister Rob Davies, in the field of youth employment. The government is planning to stimulate youth employment by way of subsidising youth workers' wages by allowing employers to claim back part of such wages through the tax system.
The IFP welcomes this policy as an example of job creation with direct involvement of a job-creating private sector, rather than a bland government intervention. After all, the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, which has been the flagship government policy in the field of job creation until now, has proved to be more of a welfare-promoting venture than a job-creating venture. It has also been proved to be inculcating further dependency on the state by exaggerating its role in job creation.
As we know, job opportunities created by the EPWP tend to be of a short nature, lasting a month and a half on average. During such a short period, little or no transfer of marketable skills can possibly take place. The fact that the government counts job opportunities separately, even if they are afforded to the same beneficiaries, means that the total number of such jobs is vastly exaggerated.
We believe that the proposal for a wage subsidy to support youth employment could inspire economic growth. The IFP has in the past repeatedly raised concerns about South Africa's lack of leadership and direction, especially on the economic front, where there is a lack of economic vision and a lack of a clear, crisp and coherent industrial policy.
It is with this in mind that the IFP is concerned that the Minister has not outlined clearly how the new Industrial Policy Action Plan 2, or Ipap 2 as it is commonly known, will be aligned with other departments. It is also worrying that it has not been made clear how this plan will be resourced.
When the Minister made the statement on Ipap 2 in Parliament early this year, the IFP supported the good initiative by the Minister and the department. But in terms of its support for a new growth plan and for stimulating industry as part of the Department's industrial policy action plan, we wonder why priority is not given to small-scale agriculture. This would present an opportunity to speed up land reform through more business- friendly measures than the recently resuscitated threat to expropriate commercially viable farm land.
Furthermore, the vision of Ipap 2 to create 2,4 million direct and indirect decent jobs is definitely a step in the right direction. However, we sincerely hope that these ambitious plans will not remain a mere wish list, but will be a significant step forward in scaling up our efforts to promote long-term industrialisation and industrial diversification.
In addition to our concern over Ipap 2, Cipro remains a problem and seems to be somewhat dysfunctional with its registration of both businesses and intellectual property rights. Cipro, with its current modus operandi, will only lead to a slower economic recovery for the country. Measures must be put in place to rectify their shortcomings and the slow turnaround times for business registration.
In conclusion, I would like to make one last comment about a threat to our economy ... [Interjections.]. The IFP will support this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Time expired.]