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Pretoria - Better productivity is crucial to ensure economic growth, Business Unity SA (Busa) president Futhi Mtoba told a Presidential Business Summit on Job Creation in Pretoria on Friday.
Big business, President Jacob Zuma and some of his cabinet ministers were in the summit to discuss jobs and job creation.
In its proposed new growth path (NGP), the government aims to create five million jobs over a 10-year period by pumping more financing into labour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing and the so-called green economy.
Mtoba said the better productivity in turn required capital investment to ensure "we utilise the inputs of labour, energy and materials better".
Mtoba also expressed support for the government's youth wage subsidy proposal, which labour federation Cosatu is not in favour of.
She called on the government to ensure that there was certainty and predictability in order to make investment decisions easier.
On sectors, Mtoba said reversing the significant job losses of 2009 in the mining sector would require long-term title certainty and a reliable electricity supply.
Growing the manufacturing and other sectors would require an investment and "employment-friendly" regulatory regime.
"Employers forced into layoffs by the 2009 crisis bore the brunt of inflexibility of our labour market," Mtoba said.
The inflexibility was manifested by protracted and "costly" negotiations with labour unions, Mtoba added.
Proposed labour law changes were making employers think "doubly" about employment.
"These changes will not promote employment and constitute a full frontal assault on competitiveness," she said.
Big business, President Jacob Zuma and some of his cabinet ministers were in the summit to discuss jobs and job creation.
In its proposed new growth path (NGP), the government aims to create five million jobs over a 10-year period by pumping more financing into labour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing and the so-called green economy.
Mtoba said the better productivity in turn required capital investment to ensure "we utilise the inputs of labour, energy and materials better".
Mtoba also expressed support for the government's youth wage subsidy proposal, which labour federation Cosatu is not in favour of.
She called on the government to ensure that there was certainty and predictability in order to make investment decisions easier.
On sectors, Mtoba said reversing the significant job losses of 2009 in the mining sector would require long-term title certainty and a reliable electricity supply.
Growing the manufacturing and other sectors would require an investment and "employment-friendly" regulatory regime.
"Employers forced into layoffs by the 2009 crisis bore the brunt of inflexibility of our labour market," Mtoba said.
The inflexibility was manifested by protracted and "costly" negotiations with labour unions, Mtoba added.
Proposed labour law changes were making employers think "doubly" about employment.
"These changes will not promote employment and constitute a full frontal assault on competitiveness," she said.
