Govt, business discuss new era under 7th administration

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau says the partnership between business and government has broadly been recognised as successful. The aim of the collaboration was to address the country’s energy, transport and logistics crises as well as crime and corruption.

He says there has been progress under the various work streams.

Tau was giving an online update from a meeting convened by President Cyril Ramaphosa with members of his Cbinet and business leaders.

He says they discussed a new era of collaboration under the 7th democratic administration.

“Yesterday was really the first meeting since the elections and the establishment of the Government of National Unity. It enabled us to reflect on where we come from but also what the way forward will be between government and the private sector.  And a collective expression of confidence on the work that been done was expressed yesterday but also a commitment to working together going forward and identifying further areas of collaboration.”

 

President Cyril Ramaphosa meeting with members of the Cabinet, senior business leaders, and technical experts from government and business at the Union Buildings to discuss a new era of collaboration for a government-business partnership pic.twitter.com/Iwhnw1y13S

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Giving feedback from the same meeting, Head of Project Management in the Presidency Rudi Dicks says business, Eskom and the Presidency have agreed that the priorities of the National Energy Crisis Committee should focus on transmission, market reform, municipal utilities and new energy generation.

Dicks says increasing volumes in freight rail and logistics sector is an urgent priority. He says the transport and logistics workstreams established under the business and government partnership have been slow in producing intended outcomes.

“ Specifically, what we have seen is the plateauing or declining volumes on the freight and rail network. Last year we were able to do 149 million tons, of course, that is from a low level of what we peaked at in 2017 when it was around 240 million tons. What we did see at the end of the last financial year was an ability to slightly up tick the amount on the freight and rail network to a 152 million tons.  But this is way below the targets that has been set in terms of the operational recovery plan and we think that it is going to be critical for us through collaborative effort to try and build intervention and support where we can.”