Stimulating South Africa’s productive capacity will be key to creating more jobs, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday, as he warned that the country is likely to take longer to recover from the job losses of the recession in 2009.

Zuma said in a speech delivered at a labour summit on job creation that the economy had started to show positive signs of recovery, but added that it might take longer to make a real dent in the 24% unemployment rate.

Government has set a target of achieving five-million new jobs by 2020, which would mean reducing the narrow unemployment rate to around 15%.

To achieve this, many young people would have to be brought into economic activity, as well as many of the long-term unemployed.

Zuma and Cabinet Ministers met with the three major trade union federations, Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu on Tuesday, following a similar meeting with organised business last month.

“We are interested in hearing the views of the trade union movement on how we can increase the labour absorption rate of young people at a level that will seriously decrease youth unemployment. We want to hear your views and see how we can build the partnership on jobs that is necessary to achieve our goals.”

He said government, business and labour would each have to spell out what they could do to tackle unemployment.

Government’s first strategic priority was “to speed up growth and transform the economy”, Zuma said, adding that its focus in the coming years would be on stimulating productive capacity and expenditure on the social wage.

Government has set aside R20-billion through the 12i tax incentive scheme, unveiled last year, to support large-scale greenfield and brownfield productive investments.

Zuma also said maintaining a stable pro-employment macro-economic environment would be crucial for job creation, which included effectively implementing the country’s trade and industrial policy.

Other interventions mentioned included creating a more inclusive economy, strengthening the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises and keeping up with global technological trends.

South Africa is also placing more emphasis on South-South economic relations through forums such as the Brazil, Russia, Indi, China and South Africa, and exploiting opportunities arising from regional economic integration in the continent.

“We look forward to hosting the first-ever joint summit of Southern African Development Community, the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa in a few weeks' time which will be a major boost for economic integration,” Zuma said.