The Gauteng Government has made a plea to the private sector to invest as much as possible in the province as it seeks to aggressively grow the province’s economy which is not thriving relative to its size and economic activity.
Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo met with industry captains in Johannesburg on Monday where he announced a target of R2 trillion economic output and committed the government to creating an environment conducive for investment.
Mamabolo launched what is called the Roundtable Partnership with Private Sector Chief Financial Officers to boost private sector investment and said this initiative is driven by some of the country’s leading corporate CFOs to unlock significant private sector resources.
The theme of the meeting was Leveraging Public-Private Finances to Grow Gauteng’s Economy and a partnership between Gauteng Provincial Treasury, the Chartered Institute of Business Accountants (CIBA), Standard Bank and the Chartered Institute of Government Finance Audit and Risk Officers (CIGFARO).
“The influence of CFOs goes beyond financial management in today’s dynamic economy. Their strategic decisions directly affect economic growth, from driving investments to fostering innovation.
“By navigating market trends and global shifts, CFOs propel organisational success and play a crucial role in enhancing a nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A higher GDP indicates a more robust economy, with more jobs, higher income levels, and more consumer spending,” Mamabolo said, adding that among others the provincial government will reduce red tape in order to make it easy to do business in Gauteng.
“One concrete thing we want to do is to set up a pilot project in one municipality to reduce red tape to improve turnaround times to support compliance and we wish by the time we go to the budget next year, we would have learnt the lessons, would have seen how this will work, what will cost.
“One of the things that I’m going to do is to approach the Premier and my colleagues in Cabinet to set aside money to finance initiatives to cut red tape,” he said.
Mamabolo said if the project works it will be replicated in other municipalities.
Standard Bank Chief Economist Goolam Ballim said Gauteng’s economy is as big as Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal combined.
“But in the last 10 years these economies have grown at the same rate. There hasn’t been much of a difference in terms of the growth. KZN is about 40/45% the size of Gauteng and Western Cape is about 40% the size of Gauteng. Gauteng is also a magnet for drawing in migrants,” he said.
