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South Africa will not win its battle against poverty, inequality and unemployment if it is not raising the level of economic growth and promote inclusive growth. This was said by the Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies.  He was addressing a two-day Export Strategy Conference of China's electronics manufacturer Hisense in Cape Town.

Hisense head offices are based in Midrand, Johannesburg, and its manufacturing factory was launched in 2013 in Atlantis, Cape Town.  The conference was attended by dealers and agents from around the world. Speaking at the conference, Minister Davies said government has come up with various instruments that will promote inclusive growth.  He said that industrialisation and infrastructures development are critical elements of achieving this.

“For us as a country, Industrialisation is fundamental and we need to move-up the value chain.  Infrastructure is necessary to support and underpin industrialisation.  roll-outroll-outIt can also be a basis to support industrial development, because infrastructure rollout programmes create demand for news factories.  We also need to support new innovative technology coming to our country and transferring those technologies to our people. I believe that these elements will enable us to reach an inclusive growth,” said Minister Davies.

He added that South Africa can learn from the Chinese by promoting investment both domestic and foreign.

“One of the things that are interesting about Hisense in particular, it is one of the 1st Chinese investments that came to South Africa and located itself in value added industries. The People's Republic of China changed from being the net recipients of Foreign Direct Investment to becoming net investors outside of the boarders of china,” further said Minister Davies

The Minister also defended government’s policy on Black Industrialists, saying it is important for government to promote a much more inclusive pattern of economic growth.

“We need to include more historically disadvantaged people in the manufacturing sector. It is for this reason that we have taken a decision to support black industrialists on top of the BEE programmes, so that we actually assist to create many more black people who are in fact leaders of the industrial enterprises in the country,” stated Minister Davies.

The minister highlighted that South Africa has the capacity to produce quality products and the company’s General Manager Youbo Li, indicated that Hisense SA was voted amongst the top five performing companies.

According to Mr Li Hisense SA is ranked 2nd globally after the United States in terms of Hisense standards. Mr Li said that Hisense SA aims to produce 270,000 TV sets and 210,000 fridges in 2015. According to Li, their export strategy will use South Africa to expand to Africa and this will lead to job-creation. The company's made-in-South-Africa productions are exported to more than 10 African countries.

Hisense received funding from the dti to tune of more than R28-million. Hisense has since expanded and increased
Caption: Minister Davies speaking at a two-day Export Strategy Conference

Issued by The Department of Trade and Industry