Publications
Partners
Cape Town - The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) is to roll-out support for 250 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) incubation schemes over the next five years, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Tuesday.
"We have established an advisory group to look at areas where we could potentially achieve greater impact in our SMME support programmes," he told the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote.
"This was motivated by a sense that we are not making sufficient headway in realising the potential of enterprise development," he said.
An early conclusion was that one of the areas of greatest potential success and, this was also borne out by international experience, was incubation programmes.
The problem was that South Africa had only between 30 and 40 recognised incubation projects whereas Brazil had 4 000.
"Ramping ourselves up will be a major challenge and one in which government cannot achieve the necessary results on its own.
"We will accordingly be seeking more active partnerships with business and are looking at ways to tweak BBBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) programmes, as well as direct SMME programmes to develop the necessary synergies."
In this regard, Seda was planning to roll out support for 250 incubation schemes over the next five years, as the first phase towards a target of 1 000 small business incubators.
Turning to black economic empowerment (BEE) more generally, Davies said the BEE codes of good practice were promulgated four years ago and the department of trade and industry (dti) was now in a better position to assess their impact.
The Presidential Advisory Council had made several policy recommendations to allow for greater participation by black people in productive activities and to tackle what was now emerging as increasingly complex practices of fronting.
To this end, the dti and the council were focusing on reviewing the BEE codes and possibly amending the BBBEE Act.
This could entail, among others, refinements to ensure greater policy coherence in the application of BBBEE across the government and to strengthen access to procurement opportunities through the now approved and aligned Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act regulations.
"We are also looking at ways to strengthen our efforts to combat the fraudulent practice of fronting," he said.
Co-operatives also offered great potential as an accessible form of involving many people in economic activity and job creation.
In the past year, 100 new small-scale co-operatives with about 500 new job opportunities had been established using the dti's support structures.
This was insufficient and the dti would shortly introduce a Co-operatives Amendment Bill and a co-operative strategy to strengthen programmes and address a number of evident shortcomings.
"Fundamentally these will seek to put in place co-operative specific institutions including a co-operative development agency, a co-operative tribunal, a co-operative advisory council and a co-operative academy."
The new strategy was a product of extensive engagement with stakeholders and also with the higher education and training department, which was working towards establishing a Co-operative Training Academy to provide customised skills development, Davies said.
"We have established an advisory group to look at areas where we could potentially achieve greater impact in our SMME support programmes," he told the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote.
"This was motivated by a sense that we are not making sufficient headway in realising the potential of enterprise development," he said.
An early conclusion was that one of the areas of greatest potential success and, this was also borne out by international experience, was incubation programmes.
The problem was that South Africa had only between 30 and 40 recognised incubation projects whereas Brazil had 4 000.
"Ramping ourselves up will be a major challenge and one in which government cannot achieve the necessary results on its own.
"We will accordingly be seeking more active partnerships with business and are looking at ways to tweak BBBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) programmes, as well as direct SMME programmes to develop the necessary synergies."
In this regard, Seda was planning to roll out support for 250 incubation schemes over the next five years, as the first phase towards a target of 1 000 small business incubators.
Turning to black economic empowerment (BEE) more generally, Davies said the BEE codes of good practice were promulgated four years ago and the department of trade and industry (dti) was now in a better position to assess their impact.
The Presidential Advisory Council had made several policy recommendations to allow for greater participation by black people in productive activities and to tackle what was now emerging as increasingly complex practices of fronting.
To this end, the dti and the council were focusing on reviewing the BEE codes and possibly amending the BBBEE Act.
This could entail, among others, refinements to ensure greater policy coherence in the application of BBBEE across the government and to strengthen access to procurement opportunities through the now approved and aligned Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act regulations.
"We are also looking at ways to strengthen our efforts to combat the fraudulent practice of fronting," he said.
Co-operatives also offered great potential as an accessible form of involving many people in economic activity and job creation.
In the past year, 100 new small-scale co-operatives with about 500 new job opportunities had been established using the dti's support structures.
This was insufficient and the dti would shortly introduce a Co-operatives Amendment Bill and a co-operative strategy to strengthen programmes and address a number of evident shortcomings.
"Fundamentally these will seek to put in place co-operative specific institutions including a co-operative development agency, a co-operative tribunal, a co-operative advisory council and a co-operative academy."
The new strategy was a product of extensive engagement with stakeholders and also with the higher education and training department, which was working towards establishing a Co-operative Training Academy to provide customised skills development, Davies said.
