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Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) expects President Jacob Zuma in his State-of-the-Nation-Address on Thursday, February 9th, to give a firm sense that 2012 is the year of accelerated implementation of policies and programmes that have been agreed and funded. In President Zuma’s third year in office 2012 must be a year of “game change” for implementation. Business expects the address to give a comprehensive platform on which business, government, labour and community can continue to position South Africa on a higher, more inclusive and job-rich growth path – and expediting what has been agreed in programmes such as the New Growth Path and the National Development Plan.
It is recognized that growth and job creation by the private sector are maximised in an environment that offers policy certainty, predictability, continuity and coherence. BUSA therefore hopes that the State-of-the-Nation’s overall message will underpin investor confidence and the role of business in order to strengthen economic recovery and promote growth. The more things go wrong abroad, the more South Africa must look to the efficacy of its domestic policies and to its international competitiveness to reach its socio-economic goals. The prioritization of job creation, poverty reduction, education, economic transformation, infrastructural development and growth must be invested with a new sense of urgency.
BUSA hopes that President Zuma’s State-of-the-Nation-Address will throw its weight behind strengthening an entrepreneurial culture in South Africa especially for small and emerging business. We believe it is in small business that the greatest potential lies for realizing South Africa’s employment targets. The burden of regulation on business therefore needs to be lightened to encourage business expansion. In addition, in order to expedite delivery, we need to experiment with all kinds of new partnerships between the state and private enterprise and trust that the State-of-the-Nation-Address will reinforce this recognition.
BUSA also looks to the State-of-the-Nation-Address to emphasize the close collaboration needed with the social partners to translate the vision of a better economic future into reality. The central thrust of the Address should ultimately support competitiveness and endorse the urgent implementation of the kind of structural changes that will lead to more rapid, inclusive growth.