STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS 2004
SA's economic turnaround: Mbeki
Richard Mantu
6 February 2004
Ten years ago, South Africa had double-digit inflation, its budget deficit stood at 9.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), public sector debt was equal to 64% of GDP, and the Reserve Bank's net open forward position stood at US$25-billion.
Today, after 10 years of democracy, inflation is well within the Reserve Bank's targeted range at 4%, the budget deficit stood at fractionally over 1% in 2002/03, public sector debt was down to less than 50% of GDP in 2002/03, and the Reserve Bank's net open forward position fell to zero in the 2003 fiscal year.
President Thabo Mbeki cited these statistics in his state of the nation address in Parliament on Friday, highlighting the country's economic progress since the advent of democracy in 1994, when many were ready to write the country off.
Mbeki said the country would continue to focus on the growth and development of a modern, affluent "first economy" in order to generate resources to meet the
challenges of its underdeveloped "second economy".
This, he said, would require further and significant infrastructure investments, skills development, scientific and technological research, development and expansion of the knowledge of economy, growth and modernisation of the manufacturing and service sectors, deeper penetration of the global markets by products, increasing savings levels, black economic empowerment and the further expansion of small and medium enterprises.
Such investments, Mbeki said, would lead to the empowerment of the country's masses to become better activists for South Africa's reconstruction and development.
During the first decade of democracy, the government's aim was to ensure that the country achieved macro-economic stability, increased its competitiveness and improved its productivity to encourage exports and to roll back white minority control of the economy. It had also aimed to encourage the establishment of small businesses,
particularly black-owned companies.
Entering South Africa's second decade of democracy, Mbeki said, the government had to move vigorously to implement all the programmes it had agreed on to ensure that all South Africans were freed from the social conditions that spelt loss of human dignity.
These programmes, he said, included the urban renewal and rural development programmes, the expanded public works programme, the expansion of micro-credit and small enterprises, the provision of adult basic education and modern skills, as well as the development of the social and economic infrastructure.
Source: BuaNews
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