BUSINESS NEWS
SA is 'on track' - Mbeki
Posted Mon, 28 Aug 2006
South Africa is making good progress in improving the lives of all its citizens, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. "[The Reserve Bank's 2006 Annual Economic Report] says that we are making steady progress towards the achievement of our objectives, based on the healthy economic fundamentals that we need to enable us to move forward," he said in his weekly newsletter on the ANC website. "Many of the biggest challenges our country faces revolve around the performance of our economy and the equitable distribution of the wealth we produce," he said, commenting on the report released last week.
It was therefore vitally necessary to continue paying close uninterrupted attention to these issues. Critical challenges included reducing and eradicating poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment, addressing race and gender inequality in the distribution of opportunity, income and wealth, and creating a caring and equitable society. "To achieve these goals requires that
we have a strong economy that generates the resources we need. For this reason, throughout our 12 years of democracy, we have paid close attention to the performance of the economy," Mbeki said. Therefore, government had sought, among other things, to ensure that the economy grew at high and sustainable rates, and domestic savings were raised to provide investment capital. Further, that public finances were managed so that the public sector, including state-owned enterprises, contributed to growth, while doing everything possible to meet the needs of the people, especially the poor.
Others included restructuring and modernising the economy to improve its international competitiveness, increasing productivity by relying on better skilled workers and the introduction of modern technology, and transforming the "second economy". The Reserve Bank's 2006 Report "communicates the good news that we are indeed doing very well in this regard", Mbeki said. "At
the same time, this indicates that we have established the very firm foundation we need to enable us to perform even better than we have done so far, which we can and must do." Mbeki quoted at length from the report, saying it told an inspiring story of yet another successful year in the 12-year history of democratic South Africa. "This report must give us the energy and impetus to accelerate our reconstruction and development process — achieving higher and sustained investment-driven economic growth rates, restructuring and modernising our economy, especially manufacturing, increasing the skills and incomes of our working people, and sharing our national wealth equitably, and thus further expand our domestic market." The report said the country's achievements over the past 12 years confirmed that these goals could be reached, he said.
Sapa
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