Manufacturing should and could be SA’s sunrise sector
With 9.6-million unemployed South Africans we need to focus on sectors that have the potential to create jobs
On Saturday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane released the party’s most comprehensive manifesto to date. It is a document that covers every aspect of SA’s landscape from education to healthcare and the economy. A strong focus in the manifesto is given to trade, investment and manufacturing as keys drivers for economic growth and job creation. Manufacturing is a key catalyst and multiplier for job creation and has incredible potential to stimulate economic growth, regain our space in manufacturing global value chains, and ultimately create jobs. In SA, manufacturing has been in a deep crisis for a long time, with it’s contribution to GDP falling from 18% in 1997 to 11% in 2018. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost during the “nine wasted years” of reckless ANC policies, which have seen the costs of manufacturing increase exponentially while productivity has declined dramatically. According to the World Bank, manufacturing has the highest job multiplier of any sector. According to the Manuf...
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