Government's economic sectors and employment cluster, which has been mandated to grow the economy and create jobs, is in the process of developing a ‘Growth Plan' for consideration during the mid-year Cabinet Lekgotla.

Speaking at a media briefing in Cape Town on Tuesday, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said that the cluster had highlighted eight areas that would feature in the growth plan, which would aim to facilitate a new growth path for the South African economy.

Firstly, the implementation of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap2) would create an estimated 2,477-million direct and indirect jobs over the next ten years and would put manufacturing, services and other productive sectors as the engine of sustainable growth.

Pandor noted that a portfolio committee would hold hearings on the implementation of Ipap 2 within the next two weeks.

Secondly, it was believed that government's continued support for the implementation of phase two of the Framework Response to the International Economic Crisis could accelerate the recovery of jobs and of economic growth.

Thirdly, Pandor stated that it was critical to focus on science and innovation to ensure South Africa's long-term competitiveness in a knowledge-intensive global economy.

As a result, in the 2010 Medium Term Economic Framework (MTEF), government would intensify its emphasis on innovation in five identified areas of research.

Essentially, South Africa would accelerate long term research and development-led industrial development opportunities in biotechnology, information and communications technology (ICT) and electronics, bio-composite materials, renewable energy, titanium beneficiation, high-value chemicals, advanced batteries, agro-processing, and high-value agricultural products, noted Pandor.

The cluster would also continue to implement initiatives to reduce the cost of retail communication services by 30% to enhance ICT application in business development and domestic use.

Both the Electronics Communications and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) Act would be amended to support that objective.

Pandor continued that another focus area was the creation of green jobs and the expansion of a green economy.

Green jobs would grow both directly and indirectly in the transport, energy, building, manufacturing, agriculture and forestry sectors, noted Pandor.

"There will be employment in the manufacture, installation and operation of clean energy for people like wind turbine engineers, insulation installers, recycling sorters and photovoltaic cell salespeople," elaborated Pandor.

"Indirectly, there will be jobs in the greener-goods supply chain - from solar cell manufacturers to green building materials retailers to wind farm maintenance firms to recycling haulers to energy auditors."

It was also noted that the cluster would finalise a green economy plan to be presented to Cabinet by July.

Another area of focus was the public sector. The cluster would leverage the public sector for employment and creation of job opportunities.

It would continue implementing public sector employment programme such as the second phase of the Expanded Public Works Programme, which had the potential to create two-million job opportunities by 2014.

A further area of focus was rural development and agro-processing.
A job creation model had been developed to ensure that one person for every participating household was trained and placed on a two-year employment contract.

In addition, resuscitation plans would be developed for farms under distress, which government acquired through land distribution and restitution since 1994.

Enterprise development was another area of focus that would assist in the creation of jobs.

Pandor stated that funds would be set aside for lending by Khula to small enterprises and that the recapitalisation of Khula and Samaf will be considered.

A new cooperatives model would be developed to strengthen support given to cooperatives both financial and non-financial. This would include the establishment of the Cooperatives Development Agency.

Further, work would be undertaken to redirect a series of financial and nonfinancial support, to improve income generation and quality of production of enterprises in the informal economy.

The final focus area was tourism. The tourism sector was an essential contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, creation of decent work and job opportunities and the cluster would aim to diversify the tourism industry to include corporate tourism.
The diversification of the sector is expected to realise new rural based products by 2014 /15 as well as new niche products.

While the eight areas highlighted were key, Pandor said that the cluster would also examine other opportunities in mining, mineral beneficiation, and agriculture.