GDP to return to 4% by 2011

[newsroom]

Pretoria - South Africa’s growth trend is expected to return to 4 percent by 2011, says the Department of Trade and Industry (dti).

Addressing delegates at the Competitive Summit on Wednesday, the department’s acting deputy director general Sipho Zikode said there was a positive outlook for 2010 with expectations of positive growth for the South African economy.

"In order to achieve these levels of growth, there is a need for an increase in productivity performance and competitiveness. In this regard the aim of government is to strengthen competitiveness and promote Small Medium and Micro Enterprises as well as co-operatives for the creation of sustainable jobs," said Zikode.

The dti said it will continue to work on developing capacity and increasing the levels of the country’s firms’ competitiveness.

National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) executive director Herbert Mkhize highlighted some of the imbalances of the country’s productivity landscape in that they were far from being ideal when coming to the workplace.

"Industrial action 'a co-determination in a workplace' becomes a threat to productivity, and for productivity to happen there must be harmony around the workplace" said Mkhize.

He added that government needs to play a major role for developing competitiveness in order to compete on a global scale.

The summit ends on Friday. - BuaNews