‘SA not living up to investment potential'

South Africa is “highly attractive” to potential foreign investors but the country is not living up to its potential for growth and development. That’s according to chief economist at Econometrix, Dr Azar Jammine, who told FTW that there were three issues that needed to be urgently addressed. “The government is simply not recognising that there is a high correlation between employability, education and skills, and over the past 18 years there has been little progress in eliminating that gap,” said Jammine. He cautioned however that it was not just education on which businesses should concentrate, but skills as well. “We must be very careful not to alienate those with proven skills in the workplace because of BEE and AA. In the last ten years, the percentage of skilled workers leaving the country has increased from 6% to 20%.” In addition the current labour laws – which greatly favour the rights of the working class over that of the employer class – make it “very unattractive” to employ staff, particularly for small businesses. And then there’s the issue of entrepreneurship. Currently, about 70% of jobs in South Africa are created by small business, said Jammine, adding that there was not enough support for entrepreneurship by government. “They can’t just pay lip service to promoting small business, there needs to be incentive for the private sector to take those risks.”