Cape Town - Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel on Friday defined
his mandate as cutting across the terrain of different departments,
firming the perception that he will be driving economic policy.
In a briefing to MPs on his department's strategic plan, Patel
stressed the need for synergy between different state departments
to achieve developmental goals but gave the impression that these
will be identified by his fledgling unit.
He ascribed the department of trade and industry (DTI) an
implementation role on issues like small business development and
trade optimisation.
The latter will be driven by a new focus on adjusting trade
imbalances and tweaking ties to maximise job creating stimulus for
South Africa, an exercise the new ministry and its advisory bodies
appear set to mastermind.
"As a big exporter of minerals it is clear that trading
relations are critical. The challenge is how to do work that will
give us a much more balanced trade outcome," he said.
"We have historical relationships with the United States and
with the European Union that we need to maintain and still ensure
the best outcome for our economy that we can."
On small business, Patel said, work needed to be done to adjust
outdated policies in collaboration with DTI who would inherit
responsibility for "the implementation of specific programmes".
Additionally, key institutions like the Industrial Development
Corporation, Khula Enterprise Finance and the SA Micro-finance Apex
Fund will from April 1 report to his ministry and no longer that of
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.
"EDD [economic development department] will help to leverage the
resources and expertise of these organisations to economic
development outcomes," the plan tabled in Parliament this week
states.
Patel said labour markets, credit extension and job creation
would also come under scrutiny from the economic development
department because it falls in the domain of the micro-economy.
"We will be doing work on a range of micro-economic policy
areas. Labour markets is one aspect of the micro-economy."
Speaking of the need to integrate the social economy into the
mainstream, he said a similar cohesion was necessary "even in
inter-governmental relationships".
Work as a team
"In the paradigm where every state department is a separate
domain that does not interact with the other, in that paradigm it
does not make sense to have cross-cutting departments but in a
notion of governance that says you can only secure for the state
those goals that it sets for itself if it operates as a team, if it
sees the connection of the machine, a cross-cutting team makes
sense," he said.
His strategic plan also gives the new ministry an important role
in macro-economic policy, traditionally the domain of Treasury.
It stipulates that a work group from the ministry will "identify
macro-economic policy options available to the country, evaluate
different options against development and decent work goals and
make recommendations to Cabinet on policy issues".
The strategic plan defines the role of the National Planning
Commission (NPC) as integrating different dimensions of planning,
including the economic plan crafted by Patel's ministry, into a
coherent whole.
Asked by MPs about the division of labour between the NPC and
his ministry, Patel used the example of developing an economic plan
for Gauteng province.
"If migration trends and demographic trends fundamentally alter
the number of people in Gauteng, that economic plan has to respond
to it.
"So one of the things the National Planning Commission will have
to respond to is bringing together the different parts of the
puzzle and making sure that there are not separate plans that all
co-exist in parallel with each other but that they are integrated."
The government has dismissed reports of a looming turf battle
between Patel and Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, who has been
accused by trade union federation Cosatu of power-mongering and
promoting neo-liberal policies hostile to the poor.
- Sapa