Business upbeat on jobs summit

Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma's presidential business summit on jobs is a "springboard" for a deeper relationship with business, Business Unity SA (Busa) said on Thursday.

"The Busa-led business delegation sees the agenda for the summit as a springboard for periodic and deeper collaboration between the two parties in future," Busa said.

The summit on job creation will be held in Pretoria on Friday.

In a statement on Wednesday, the presidency said the summit will focus on "how government and business can partner to address the unemployment challenge in South Africa".

Busa said this showed a commitment to having constructive talks between the government and business at the highest level.

"One of the important cross-cutting issues likely to be addressed by business is the negative impact of regulatory uncertainty on investment decisions and a general need to lighten the regulatory burden on business, especially on small business."

The organisation hopes the summit would look at constraints to "achieving a higher inclusive job-rich growth path".

"The intention from the Busa side is to focus on practical proposals as to how these bottlenecks can be unblocked."

Busa will raise the matter of skills development, expediting infrastructural development and promoting entrepreneurship and small business development.

"There will also be a careful examination of the extent to which key sectors such as manufacturing, mining and agriculture can be important job drivers in the years ahead."