Billions set aside for black industrialists
Minister says programme created thousands of jobs
THE government’s black industrialist programme is gathering momentum, with 46 projects having been approved and more than R2-billion deployed for this purpose through government agencies.
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies gave this update in his budget vote speech in the National Assembly.
The programme was launched in March 2016 with the aim of supporting 100 black industrialists until March 2019. In addition to the financial support of the government agencies, approved black industrialists have received R122-million in grants from the department.
“Our support has allowed these black industrialists to undertake investment projects of R3.7-billion and is projected to create more than 8 000 direct jobs and close to 12 000 indirect jobs.
“As we have indicated earlier we have now decided to accelerate the implementation of the programme to support 100 black industrialists. Instead of reaching this milestone by March 2019 we now intend to reach this target by the end of the current financial year, that is, by March 2018,” Davies told MPs.
He emphasised that those benefiting from this programme had passed through a “rigorous test” to ensure that they were genuine manufacturing entrepreneurs who had met the identified criteria of ownership and personal leadership.
They also had to have placed their own funds at risk in developing their businesses.
Davies emphasised the importance of the department’s programmes in supporting industry. The Automotive Investment Scheme had contributed to keeping the investment trend in the automotive sector positive, he said.
The current scheme is due to run until 2020 and Davies said the department was engaged with stakeholders to develop an automotive master plan that would inform SA’s motor industry programme thereafter.
He said that in the last financial year, the department had supported 270 projects in various manufacturing subsectors through the manufacturing competitiveness enhancement programme.
“Our support attracted privatesector investment to the value of R3.4-billion with more than 62 000 jobs retained.
The 12i tax incentive scheme supported 49 projects with a projected private-sector investment amounting to R25.7-billion, while the aquaculture development and enhancement programme supported 17 projects with a projected private-sector investment of R383-million,” Davies told MPs.
The minister announced that the government had set aside R1-billion to fund a sector-specific incentive for the agro-processing sector in the current financial year.
The incentive would support both brown and greenfield investments, encourage investment in upstream and downstream support services, and the expansion of infrastructure to be used by farmers and agroprocessors.
Davis said the agro-processing sector was an important labour-intensive sector prioritised in the department’s industrial policy action plan.
In 2016, SA concluded the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU, with the aim of increasing market access for its agricultural produce such as seafood, wine, canned fruit and sugar.
SA’s partnership with the Brics countries was also bearing fruit, with exports of apples to China growing 70%. — BDLive