CEOs TARGET ECONOMIC GROWTH AND 1 MILLION JOBS BY 2030
If Eskom blackouts end permanently, while crime and corruption are successfully prosecuted – and Transnet’s logistics get back on track – business leaders hope to see economic growth of 3.3% by the end of next year.
By 2025, SA’s economy could grow by 3% and create more than one million new jobs if the partnership between business and government continues to address crises in electricity and logistics, and crime and corruption.
This is a projection offered by SA’s prominent CEOs, who committed to mobilising financial resources and lending their expertise to the government over the coming years to help halt the country’s economic slide.
Just after elections earlier this year, organised business (comprising about 150 CEOs) pledged its support to the government, offering expertise and money (mobilising R250-million) to fix the country’s problems in three key areas: electricity, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption. This support was known as Phase One.
The CEOs pledged to launch Phase Two of the partnership with the government is a good sign, saying they would focus on permanently ending Eskom’s rolling blackouts, lending assistance to Transnet to run trains and ports, and helping law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute complex corruption-related crimes.
If these initiatives are accelerated, they have the potential to lift economic growth, create jobs and improve sentiment and overall investment flows towards SA, the CEOs said during the launch of Phase Two in Johannesburg.
