Thank you, Chairperson. I find myself being a common denominator among the three Ministers and the Deputy. The hon Rob Davies was my chairperson before he was appointed the Deputy Minister of Trade Industry. I share the economics cluster with hon Ntuli and hon Tobias is my homegirl.
Apparently, hon Sinclair is confused and can no longer cope with the confusion he is causing himself by moving from one party to the other, that is, from the NP to the ANC and to Cope. He forgets that they are pushing for trade liberation and deregulation of capital markets which is a free market today. We are in this economic conundrum crisis in the world. So, you have to relook at your policies.
The global economic downturn that we are facing today has a very negative impact on our fiscus. The Minister of Finance has reported that we are likely to lose R60 billion. We will be forced to borrow from the capital markets, which is not a good idea. We will be burdening our future generations with debt.
However, Programme 7 of Trade and Investment is trying to make sure that we promote our trade internationally and locally in order to be able to create jobs. This programme aims at creating 52 000 jobs within the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period. However, we would like to know if those are quality jobs and how long they are going to last.
Within the MTEF period, we have been informed that 61% of the budget is spent on incentives. There is a law of diminishing returns in economics and I would like to know from the Minister, of all these incentives, how many are working for us and how many are not? What is the long-term strategic view to turn around the strategy in order for us to create more jobs and improve our economy?
It is, however, pleasing to see that the budget for Trade and Industry, over the MTEF period, is increasing in line with the economic downturn because we need to be prepared for the worst, as the economists say the worst is still coming. We, therefore, need to be prepared for the worst economic downturn as our economy needs to tag along, so to say.
As we move towards the developmental state, development finance institutions have been found to help only 5% of our population, according to Statistics SA. The question is, if development finance institutions help only 5% of our people, 75% are going to loan sharks and the remaining percentage are being helped by commercial banks, what is the role of development finance institutions? That is the information which was provided to the finance committee a year ago by Statistics SA.
As we move towards the developmental state, we need skills as they are central to implementing policies that will enable people to get jobs and improve their lives. The DA says that we are unable to implement skills, forgetting that we are in this conundrum of poor skills, of uneducated people, because of policies they were following as the NP for 40 years.
Remember that a policy takes time before it makes an impact on society. You might implement a policy today, but the results or the output of that policy may only be seen 10 to 15 years down the line. I, therefore, would like to warn the DA that each time they say there is a shortage of skills and the democratic government is not working, they must not forget that they are the main contributors towards the skills shortage in the country.
I want to bring to the attention of the Minister that down in the Free State along the Mohokare River, along the Lesotho River, there is a project that has the potential of creating 300 permanent jobs and 200 seasonal jobs. There is capital there, the plant is there, the organic farm is there; however, the problem is marketing.
The project was stopped more than six years ago because the organic market was still being developed overseas and it was too small in South Africa. How can the department market such products or open organic farming like the one in the community around Ladybrand? They have all the capital. All that is needed is for the market to open.