2020 strategic priorities
There’s a need for a road map to pursue longterm goals that will cover many initiatives
WHAT should be our government and civil society’s priorities for 2020? Everyone agrees that there is a need for a road map to pursue longer-term priorities that will serve as umbrellas covering many initiatives.
We need integrative strategic priorities to tie many initiatives together and tap into their inter-dependencies with each other so we can move forward with greater speed and effectiveness towards economic development.
We live in tumultuous times that require a radical rethinking of our strategic priorities. The National Development Plan (NDP) defines the desired destination and identifies the role different sectors of society need to play in eliminating poverty and reducing inequality by 2030.
We should single out a few strategic priorities to pursue if we are serious about bringing down unemployment and poverty, and boosting growth and economic development.
So what are my choices for priorities for 2020? I have chosen five priorities for the next year. They are:
● Sorting out electricity supply to power economic growth.
● On-the-job training.
● Increased mobility and connectivity of people through quality infrastructure.
● Responsible citizenship.
● Inclusive transformation of the financial services sector to include the black majority.
Everybody, from households to businesses, require energy to satisfy basic daily needs and essentially support economic and human development. Keeping pace with electricity demand has become a huge economic development challenge.
Electricity reticulation and distribution is an integral part of the process of achieving improved service delivery. Economic development depends on the availability of electricity.
The departments of Energy and Public Enterprises, Eskom and the electricity regulator need to agree that all available non-Eskom generation supply should be contracted, at a reasonable cost.
Our national budget is and should be the ultimate expression of a nation’s hopes and expectations. It should embody the people’s deepest priorities.
Therefore we should realign money to hire new teachers, build additional classrooms, increase funding for teacher training and to procure textbooks. Linked to funding education should be on-the-job training for those who never made it past high school. These are the people most at risk of being entrapped in poverty.
The on-the-job training should complement and reinforce what is being learned in school and it should provide some income to enable the trainee to get by in life.
Next to electricity supply and on-the-job training is the need for increased mobility and connectivity of people through quality infrastructure to improve quality of life and lead to a safer environment.
We need to insist on building a needs-driven network of roads that serve the real needs of people, who need to be more efficiently inter-connected with each other.
Moreover, the quality of the roads in that network needs to be fully in line with international standards, functional and economical to use.
Responsible citizenship calls on all citizens to get involved in the observance of our core values to realise a prosperous South Africa. It asks each one of us to answer the question, what can we do for our country every day?
Our country has yet to create the economic ecosystem necessary for the transformation of the financial services sector to thrive – that is, an integrated policy environment that encourages transformative ventures to take hold and succeed.
Instead, many challenges continue to impede the transformation of this sector from reaching its full potential.
Statistics for the financial sectors – Asset and Investment management; Stockbroking; Asset Consulting; Private Equity, Banking and Insurance – long-term and short-term confirm slow transformation. Let this change from 2020 onwards.
Let us all remember US President John F Kennedy’s speech in 1961 which inspired all to see the importance of civic action and public service.
His historic words: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, should, 58 years later, still challenge every one of us to contribute in some way to the public good and sort out electricity supply to power economic growth, implement on-the-job training, increase mobility and connectivity of people through quality infrastructure and embrace responsible citizenship.
The national budget should be an expression of a nation’s hopes