Trade Symposium highlights tourism, job creation

WHITE RIVER – The importance of tourism for the local economy was again emphasised during the launch of the South African Trade, Investment and Tourism Promotion Symposium here last week.

“Tourism is one of the most important sectors in the province,” said Mr Motlatjo Moholwa, deputy director general of economic planning and sector development in the Department of Economic Development, Economy and Tourism (Dedet). “But we have the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) which is dedicated to marketing the province.”

Dedet has allotted R304,4 million to the MTPA for this financial year, of which R4,4 million is available for tourism marketing. The department’s MEC, Ms Pinky Phosa, has said that it was prioritising infrastructure to make the agency profitable.

Moholwa also said last week that infrastructure was one of the key aspects of the department’s programme of action to be embarked upon to create jobs. The symposium was launched in Mpumalanga on September 25 at the Protea Winkler Hotel. Ms Rowena Baird from SAfm facilitated and broadcast proceedings live. Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize, deputy minister of economic development, discussed the national plan before Moholwa took to the floor.

He said the country depended on the world’s economy for growth. Mpumalanga in turn depended on South Africa, for which growth of 3,2 per cent has been forecast. “Our economy is growing, but employment is lagging,” he said.

Where mining and agriculture were the highest contributors to economic growth, they were also the lowest contributing sectors to job creation. On the other hand, the construction, finance and transport sectors were the best performers in terms of job creation in the province. He said the province had an unemployment rate of 29,4 per cent in the second quarter.

Yet, the New Mpumalanga Economic Growth Development Path (MEGDP) aimed to reduce unemployment by 15 per cent by 2020. In response to a listener’s questions, Moholwa said that initially they may not achieve the target of 70 000 jobs per annum. “But farther in the future we may get more than 70 000,” he said.

In Mpumalanga, the main drivers of employment were tourism, green economy and information and communications technology investment, the public sector, and rural development. At the core of the action plan to create jobs, are cooperatives, small, micro and medium enterprises, the youth, broad-based black economic empowerment and agro-processing.

Agro-processing is one of the key areas of investment of the industrial development corporation (IDC). Mr Mashweu Matsiela, provincial manager if the IDC, was also one of only a handful of attendees at the symposium. He had previously also said that the corporation was keen to overturn the 50 per cent of its own job-creation objectives in achieved in the previous financial year.