
Durban - Deputy president, David Mabuza, met with commissioners from the National Planning Commission’s Project Team on township economy on Wednesday. The meeting was to bring Mabuza up to speed on the research that the commission has been doing as far as township economy is concerned.
The meeting was initiated in line with Mabuza’s key delegated responsibility of coordinating interventions to stimulate and support township and rural economies through the implementation and consolidation of socio-economic models.
This part of work includes the championing of high impact tourism empowerment and value chains for SMMEs in special economic zones.
As per their mandate, the national planning commission has done extensive research on key drivers towards an inclusive economy as outlined in the third chapter of the National Development Plan which is on economy and employment.
According to the plan dubbed Vision 2030, economic participation in rural areas will rise from 29% to 40% as a result of reformed land tenure, support to farmers, expanded social services, higher agricultural output, mining, social investment and tourism. These are some of the interventions that will need to be considered in order to transform this segment of the economy.
Mabuza welcomed the input by the delegation on the work done thus far in framing interventions required in stimulating the townships and villages into the new growth points of the economy.