Foreword to the Strategic & Annual Performance Plan for KZN, delivered by MEC Dr Zweli Mkhize
(click here for the full report)

With only about seven years left before the deadline for achieving the millennium development goals, the need to hasten the pace of economic development in our country has never been more urgent. The national, provincial, and local spheres of government are keenly aware of this. They are also aware that they need to work in concert, within the framework of an internally coherent, well integrated, economic development strategy – a strategy framework that would focus on achieving, simultaneously, high and sustainable economic growth rates and equity. Such a framework, we believe, finds an expression in Asgisa.

With the millennium development goals in view, Asgisa stresses the need for the country to raise its economic growth rate to an average of 6% between 2010 and 2014, and to halve the unemployment rate by 2014.

We in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government are determined to do our utmost toward achieving these targets and other millennium development goals. To this end, we have developed and are implementing provincial strategies that take their cue from – and are supportive of – national policies and goals, and Asgisa. These are the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS), the Provincial Spatial Economic Development Strategy (PSEDS), and the Provincial Industrial Development Strategy (PIDS). At the local government sphere, the IDPs and LED complement and support these provincial strategies.

Mindful of the fact that our resources are very limited, we have sought, as a major feature of our approach to strategy formulation, to concentrate our resource efforts where they would have the most impact. Thus, the PGDS focuses on only six industrial sectors identified as having the greatest comparative or competitive advantage, or the greatest potential either for growth or job creation. Likewise, the PSEDS aims to focus the province on specific developmental nodes and corridors. These nodes and corridors promise, for the most part, considerable economic potential – the major criterion for selecting them. For areas that do not, the approach of the provincial government is to implement alternative strategies – strategies of infrastructure linkages and skills development – to ensure that their communities are able to participate in some meaningful way in the economy.

Naturally, given the multiplicity of actors and stakeholders, among them different provincial government departments and municipalities, another major feature of our approach has been the consultation of the different players and stakeholders, as well as the coordination of their initiatives, during the policy and strategy formulation processes. The consultation and coordination has already borne fruit, having delivered a set of coherent, well integrated, and effective strategies. And, in the years that lie ahead, during the implementation of these strategies, we will continue to rely on this approach.

The champion of this approach, which rests on the two pillars of consultation and co-ordination, is the Department of Economic Development. Already, the department has been gearing up for this role, building the necessary capacity. Indeed, I am confident that it will acquit itself well. I am also confident that it will, under the able leadership of its new Head, successfully implement its own programmes, thus bringing us closer to achieving the millennium development goals.

In the forthcoming years therefore, the province will, thanks to the concerted efforts of all players and stakeholders and to a well-coordinated and single-minded implementation of internally coherent set of strategies, attain much higher levels of economic development. The kind of economic development I have in mind is one characterised by significantly lower rates of unemployment, substantial reduction of poverty, and improved quality of life for all citizens, as well as increased wealth and prosperity for our entrepreneurs.

Without any doubt, the role of the Department of Economic Development in realising this desired state of affairs is critical – critical both in terms of coordinating the many development initiatives of the province and implementing its own strategy and catalytic programmes and projects.

Contact the KZN DED:

Boyce Mntambo
Manager for Information & Communication Technology
Tel.: +27 33 264 2500
Fax: +27 86 679 6404
Email: mntambob@kznded.gov.za
Website: www.kznded.gov.za

Postal address:
Private Bag X001
Bishopsgate
4008

Physical address:
270 Jabu Ndlovu Street
Pietermaritzburg
3201