Govt to finalise BEE charters
Zibonele Ntuli
22 July 2004
The Department of Trade and Industry says it will complete five charters on black economic empowerment by the end of this year.
Lionel October, the DTI's director-general, said his department had to complete the information technology, transport, construction, agriculture, and wine charters.
"All of these sectors have made significant progress, there are just a few outstanding issues to accommodate the multinational companies," he said.
October said the transport charter was 90 percent complete, except for a few sub-sectors in road, freight and aviation.
He said the outstanding issues revolved around ownership - direct and indirect - regarding empowerment.
October said there were other charter processes that had just started, including the health sector.
"We hope to have one overall charter for the health industry, which encompasses the pharmaceutical sector, care providers and retail," he said, adding that BEE in
the health sector would seek to ensure expanded access to quality health care for both the public and private sectors.
He said government expects the charters to stipulate a target of 25 percent black ownership of the sectors over the next 10 years.
"When we achieve that goal by 2014, we will have substantial levels of empowerment in the economy of about 25 to 30 percent. That is a critical mass one needs to create a non-racial and de-racialised economy which can grow on a sustainable basis," he said.
Source: BuaNews
| 
