Business Unity South Africa has singled out intervention at the Port of Durban to increase efficiencies – which featured in the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan (the plan) announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday – as a critical priority that needs urgent action.
“We commit to continue engaging government and working with social partners to do what we can do encourage government to urgently implement critical areas of the plan that can be actioned immediately,” said Busa CEO Cas Coovadia. “These include the issuing of an RFP for the fifth tranche of renewable energy projects, the release of high-frequency spectrum, intervention at the Port of Durban, and resolving licensing issues for mining exploration.” Urgent action on these, and others, would begin to create the environment for the private sector to invest and kick-start economic growth, he said.
Busa had been a central part of the engagement at Nedlac to produce a document, presented to the President on 15 September, that identified the critical, immediately actionable areas, he added.
“We are now appealing to government to work with social partners to resume these engagements so that we can jointly track progress in implementation of the plan and, very critically, engage on the fundamental structural economic reforms necessary to enable investment, profitable business growth, ease of doing business and improving our competitiveness.”
He said that while the President had made several commitments in the plan, there was no indication of how these commitments would be funded.
