Date: 11/11/2004
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government
Title: S Moloto: Provincial Donor Funding Conference
SPEECH BY MR. SELLO MOLOTO, PREMIER OF LIMPOPO, DURING THE PROVINCIAL DONOR FUNDING CONFERENCE, Venetia Mine Hall, Musina, Vhembe, 11 November 2004
Master of ceremonies
Executive Mayor of Vhembe
Other Executive Mayors present here
Speaker of the Legislature
MECs, MPs, MPLs and Councillors
Our Traditional leaders
Representatives of various Embassies
Leaders of the Donor Institutions and business community in general
Leaders of the trade union movement
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Hardly four weeks ago, we adopted the second Provincial Growth and Development Strategy since the advent of freedom and democracy in our country. This strategy will serve as a development framework for the province over the next five to ten years and beyond. It is a culmination of a two to three year review process that was meant to ensure that our strategy is adjusted to new conditions. The review process has been characterised by rigorous consultations with almost all stakeholders, within both the public and private sectors.
As we said during in our Growth and Development Summit, the distinguishing feature of this new approach is anchored around the need for integration and clustering of projects or programmes. This approach is informed by the fact that development is multifaceted and recognises the urgency for convergence of all developmental plans by all spheres of government.
We would once again stress emphatically that we are not contemplating any change or shift of the existent policies. Our focus will be on policy implementation, one area which the ten-year review identifies as our major weakness. The strategy envisages a greater focus on the implementation of these policies in order to intensify the fight against poverty and unemployment.
The period preceding the Provincial Growth and Development summit saw us convening sectoral summits for two purposes. The first being to consult and engage the private sector for a collective review on how our economy has been performing in the past ten years, and secondly to solicit a buy-in from the private sector in order to foster a common understanding amongst all stakeholders on the new direction we would like to take in our development, particularly around fighting poverty and creating work.
The summits have further assisted us to identify the areas which government and public sector in general should be focusing on in order to create a conducive environment for investment and sustainable economic development. We have also learnt from these summits that development can never be sustainable without broad based community involvement and empowerment.
We are indeed pleased that we are now able to understand and appreciate the potential and critical areas for private sector investment in general and donor funding in particular. The issue of developing the secondary industry around our competitive edges, i.e. mining, tourism and agriculture, both up-stream and down-stream, has never been as clearly defined and illustrated as it is now.
Everybody is agreeing that we can only be able to expand the labour absorption capacity of these competitive edges if we concentrate our efforts on building secondary industry along the value chain.
It has become clear to us that a prerequisite for the realisation of these objectives is a need for adequate provision of requisite human capital and infrastructure for water, road network, energy, telecommunications and other services.
It is, however, necessary to indicate that Limpopo provincial government would obviously not have all resources to provide for the infrastructure and related services at once. There would still be a need for partnership with donor agencies, corporate business and private sector in general.
Our strategy recognises the importance of linking up with SADC and African Union as a whole as we are the heartland of SADC and gateway to Africa. Our strategic location demands of us to take earnest interest in the unfolding developments within AU and NEPAD.
Master of ceremonies
The National Strategic Development Framework identifies Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo as priority provinces whose development needs to be jacked up. In the past ten years Donor Agencies have been directed to these most needy areas of our country, and therefore we have got some experience in dealing with donor funding.
We are the first to acknowledge that despite the impressive achievements we made as a province in relation to donor funding, there are some weaknesses which we have observed in the past ten years. Our overall management of donor funding has been reactive and uncoordinated. There seems to be some lack of understanding between us and donor community around priorities in the province. Nevertheless, the reviewed PGDS begins to clearly set out priorities which we think we should be focusing on as the province; these would include poverty, unemployment, infrastructural development and skills shortage.
We would want to underscore the fact that despite weaknesses mentioned earlier, our province continues to be a preferred destination for the donor community. This bestows an immense responsibility on us to make sure that our donor funding and overall management is streamlined and corrected.
The province is currently working on a donor-funding framework which is aimed at streamlining and correcting the identified weaknesses. We view this conference as a platform which presents a possibility and unique opportunity for all stakeholders to engage and deliberate on the framework in order to ensure that all parties
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government
Title: S Moloto: Provincial Donor Funding Conference
SPEECH BY MR. SELLO MOLOTO, PREMIER OF LIMPOPO, DURING THE PROVINCIAL DONOR FUNDING CONFERENCE, Venetia Mine Hall, Musina, Vhembe, 11 November 2004
Master of ceremonies
Executive Mayor of Vhembe
Other Executive Mayors present here
Speaker of the Legislature
MECs, MPs, MPLs and Councillors
Our Traditional leaders
Representatives of various Embassies
Leaders of the Donor Institutions and business community in general
Leaders of the trade union movement
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Hardly four weeks ago, we adopted the second Provincial Growth and Development Strategy since the advent of freedom and democracy in our country. This strategy will serve as a development framework for the province over the next five to ten years and beyond. It is a culmination of a two to three year review process that was meant to ensure that our strategy is adjusted to new conditions. The review process has been characterised by rigorous consultations with almost all stakeholders, within both the public and private sectors.
As we said during in our Growth and Development Summit, the distinguishing feature of this new approach is anchored around the need for integration and clustering of projects or programmes. This approach is informed by the fact that development is multifaceted and recognises the urgency for convergence of all developmental plans by all spheres of government.
We would once again stress emphatically that we are not contemplating any change or shift of the existent policies. Our focus will be on policy implementation, one area which the ten-year review identifies as our major weakness. The strategy envisages a greater focus on the implementation of these policies in order to intensify the fight against poverty and unemployment.
The period preceding the Provincial Growth and Development summit saw us convening sectoral summits for two purposes. The first being to consult and engage the private sector for a collective review on how our economy has been performing in the past ten years, and secondly to solicit a buy-in from the private sector in order to foster a common understanding amongst all stakeholders on the new direction we would like to take in our development, particularly around fighting poverty and creating work.
The summits have further assisted us to identify the areas which government and public sector in general should be focusing on in order to create a conducive environment for investment and sustainable economic development. We have also learnt from these summits that development can never be sustainable without broad based community involvement and empowerment.
We are indeed pleased that we are now able to understand and appreciate the potential and critical areas for private sector investment in general and donor funding in particular. The issue of developing the secondary industry around our competitive edges, i.e. mining, tourism and agriculture, both up-stream and down-stream, has never been as clearly defined and illustrated as it is now.
Everybody is agreeing that we can only be able to expand the labour absorption capacity of these competitive edges if we concentrate our efforts on building secondary industry along the value chain.
It has become clear to us that a prerequisite for the realisation of these objectives is a need for adequate provision of requisite human capital and infrastructure for water, road network, energy, telecommunications and other services.
It is, however, necessary to indicate that Limpopo provincial government would obviously not have all resources to provide for the infrastructure and related services at once. There would still be a need for partnership with donor agencies, corporate business and private sector in general.
Our strategy recognises the importance of linking up with SADC and African Union as a whole as we are the heartland of SADC and gateway to Africa. Our strategic location demands of us to take earnest interest in the unfolding developments within AU and NEPAD.
Master of ceremonies
The National Strategic Development Framework identifies Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo as priority provinces whose development needs to be jacked up. In the past ten years Donor Agencies have been directed to these most needy areas of our country, and therefore we have got some experience in dealing with donor funding.
We are the first to acknowledge that despite the impressive achievements we made as a province in relation to donor funding, there are some weaknesses which we have observed in the past ten years. Our overall management of donor funding has been reactive and uncoordinated. There seems to be some lack of understanding between us and donor community around priorities in the province. Nevertheless, the reviewed PGDS begins to clearly set out priorities which we think we should be focusing on as the province; these would include poverty, unemployment, infrastructural development and skills shortage.
We would want to underscore the fact that despite weaknesses mentioned earlier, our province continues to be a preferred destination for the donor community. This bestows an immense responsibility on us to make sure that our donor funding and overall management is streamlined and corrected.
The province is currently working on a donor-funding framework which is aimed at streamlining and correcting the identified weaknesses. We view this conference as a platform which presents a possibility and unique opportunity for all stakeholders to engage and deliberate on the framework in order to ensure that all parties
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