Budget to help province grow its economy
THE Western Cape’s budget of almost R40 billion is intended to commit more resources to grow the province’s economy in the upcoming financial year, as well as create jobs.
Presenting the third budget of Premier Helen Zille’s administration, Finance MEC Alan Winde said yesterday that the province’s economy continued to out-perform the national economy. Winde said the province’s economy is forecast to grow at 3.5 percent in 2012 and 4.0 percent in 2013.
He added that despite the high unemployment rate, his government had managed to return the province’s employment to pre-recession levels and contrasted this with the country’s employment figure which, he said, remained 3.8 percent lower than at its peak in the fourth quarter of 2008.
“In the last quarter of 2011, broad unemployment in the Western Cape stood at 23 percent, 9.7 percent lower than in the country as a whole,” he told the provincial legislature.
He reiterated Zille’s announcement, which she made during her State of the Province address, that her government planned to stimulate job creation through a multibillion-rand infrastructure investment programme.
“Included in (the programme), is an additional allocation to the budget of R1.097bn over the medium term,” he said.
Winde said the money will be spent on projects to reinvigorate Cape Town’s CBD and Foreshore through the development of key new infrastructure. He said the expansion of the Cape Town International Convention Centre, which was started last year, would include 10 000m of retail space, a hospital, office space and several floors of below ground parking.
He said the second phase of the project, which will soon go out to tender, would create 1 000 new sustainable jobs and inject R394m into the province’s economy in the construction phase alone.
“We have also allocated R149.5m over the next four years to develop the Artscape Precinct and Founders Garden. The former project includes additional parking bays that will be linked to the convention centre, while Founders Garden will become a mixed-use, pedestrian- friendly public space.
“Our infrastructure programme in the central city will be linked by a development corridor to others along the West Coast, particularly the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone,” he said.
He said a feasibility study for the zone found that it would generate between R11-31bn annually and create between 12 000 and 29 000 sustainable jobs. He said the province would contribute R15.85m over the next three years towards the operations of the zone and was expecting the national cabinet to approve the project before the end of 2012.
Two-thirds of the 2012/13 budget will go to health and education as the two departments have been allocated R14.632bn and R14.229bn, respectively.
The other big spenders are the departments of Transport and Public Works (R4.609bn), Human Settlements (R1.921bn) and Social Development (R1.412bn). The rest of the departments will share in the remaining R3.082bn, which constitutes 7.7 percent of the total budget.
The province has earmarked R14.96m in 2012/13, R158.832m in 2013/14 and R126.208m in 2014/15 for roads infrastructure along key transport routes.
“In 2012/13, we have set aside R10 million to kick start the first phase of our Broad Band Telecommunication project,” he announced.