REVISED PROGRAMME
Manufacturing grants to target sectors, not firms
The Department of Trade and Industry has redesigned its manufacturing competitiveness enhancement programme so the extension of grants will target strategic sectors rather than individual manufacturers on a first-come, first-served basis as in the past. The programme will take effect in the new financial year, which starts on April 1, and will prioritise the labour-intensive sectors of agroprocessing and agriculture, as well as downstream manufacturers exposed to the metals sector, which has been hard hit by the global glut of steel and drop in commodity production. "We are targeting the most vulnerable and the most job-rich," Lionel October, the department’s director-general said in an interview on Friday. He said there were indications that an allocation of R1.3bn for the programme would be announced by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan when he tables his 2017-18 budget in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
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