While the South African fiscus will face a tough Budget – to be tabled by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba next week – Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies said his department would rise to the challenge and “work with whatever resources we get”.
Speaking to Engineering News Online on the sidelines of a media event, in Port Elizabeth, on Friday, Davies outlined that “we already know what we need to do, we need to reprioritise and we need to do more with less.
“We’re not in a such a bad place to do that,” he highlighted, adding that the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) black industrialist programme has now already approved the support of 79 of the 100 targeted industrialists.
“We’ll reach the 100 [target] by the end of the financial year,” he pointed out.
Davies added that, with the improved sentiments about the economic environment, he believed the country would achieve the forecasted 1% growth in gross domestic product. “That’s the scenario if we do nothing additional, [but] we can raise it.”
He added that industrialisation, however, remained a top priority for the government. “We have a new President in place, a no-nonsense President . . . and that bodes well for the country,” he said.