The New Economic Growth Path

The new growth path: the framework

23 Nov 2010

Minister Ebrahim Patel released the framework of the New Economic Growth Path at Tuynhuis today, presenting to the public a policy aimed at enhancing growth, employment creation and equity. The policy’s principal target is to create five million jobs over the next ten years.

Addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio committee via video-link from Pretoria, Minister Patel said, “This document reflects Government’s commitment to prioritising employment creation in all economic policies. It lays out strategies to enable South Africa to grow in a more equitable and inclusive manner in the future, fulfilling the promise of our democracy.”

He added, “The centrepiece of the new growth path is a massive investment in infrastructure and people through skills development, together with smart government and better coordination with the private sector and organised labour so that we can achieve our national goals.”

Minister Patel stressed that, “The shift to a new growth path challenges every South African to contribute to building our nation over the coming twenty years. It demands collective efforts, creativity and solidarity across South African society. It will require leadership and strong governance. It takes account of the new opportunities that are available to us, the strengths we have and the constraints we face.”

“The key challenge will be that of implementation and we are frank about the need for a more coordinated and effective state. We have too many agencies and too little coordination between them. We can only achieve our jobs targets if the state performs better and if the private sector grows in labour-absorbing parts of the economy. The growth path proposes ways to achieve that”, he said.

Areas of priority

Infrastructure development is identified as a critical driver of jobs across the economy. The document identifies investments in five key physical and social infrastructure areas, namely...