Thursday, September 30, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.

Making headlines:

Unemployment and poverty must be addressed to ensure growth in South Africa, delegates at the launch of the Decent Work Country Programme said on Wednesday.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said that the country is sitting on a "time bomb" if these issues are not dealt with.

A draft document on the first programme of its kind in the country was signed by representatives of government, the International Labour Organisation, organised business, organised labour and community constituencies at the National Economic Development and Labour Council in Johannesburg.
One of the programme's main focuses is ensuring that the right to work is enforced. It is further aimed at strengthening fundamental principles and rights at work, promoting employment creation, strengthening and broadening social protection coverage and social development. The Minister called the programme a "major breakthrough".

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Wednesday called on economists to rethink the way that they look at issues affecting developing nations and that he was overhauling the way that his institution approached research.
Speaking at Georgetown University in the US, Zoellick said that development economics was often too narrowly focused and not transparent to those affected by policies that emerged from the analysis. The global financial crisis and the rise of developing countries had forced a rebalancing of the world economy and raised questions about policy approaches. Zoellick said that, as a policymaker, he looked to development economics for answers.
He said that the World Bank would apply its economic know-how to studying issues from food security to what drives growth to be more relevant to the developing countries it assists.
He identified four areas that need more research. These include a better understanding of how economic transformations occur and why some countries are able to grow and others remain trapped in dire poverty.

Setting up a fund to develop regional infrastructure could assist Southern African countries to speed up regional integration, as a lack of meaningful crossborder infrastructure is holding back faster integration, said South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry director-general Tshediso Matona on Wednesday.
Addressing delegates at a national conference on the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) in Pretoria, Matona said that improved infrastructure such as energy, telecommunications, railways and roads could facilitate trade and cooperation between member States. He suggested that a portion of the shared revenue pool of the union could be put into a fund to promote spatial development initiatives and crossborder infrastructure.
Further, Matona stated that Sacu should implement practical programmes to attract capital through foreign direct investment, and better manage common revenue to spur industrial growth in the region.

Also making headlines:

The South African government releases a nonbinding request for information from potential developers of renewable energy, cogeneration and small-scale electricity projects for submission by October 7, 2010.
The heads of United Nations peacekeeping missions across West Africa appeal for Guinea's Presidential candidates to push ahead with a delayed vote because of the risk of destabilising the region.
The South African Constitutional Court will on Thursday hear an appeal by The Citizen newspaper against a defamation finding in favour of former Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride.
And, the United Nations Security Council lifts all sanctions against Sierra Leone, eight years after an 11-year civil war that was at the centre of the so-called "blood diamond" trade.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.