Chairperson, the United Nations Development Programme Report released yesterday made a number of economic policy recommendations for South Africa, echoing what the DA has been saying all along.
The UNDP report advocates the use of government subsidies to create jobs. In this regard the DA has called for tax offsets for business for job opportunities created, and the use of annual opportunity vouchers to assist the integration of school-leavers into the formal economy.
Secondly, the report backs the use of customer sector programme for the development of priority sectors. Government, while paying the necessary lip service, has yet to produce on its promises on the development of a CSP for clothing and textile manufacturing, one such priority sector.
Thirdly, the UNDP report questions the Expanded Public Works Programme's job-creating capacity as punted by government. As the DA has said before, given the scale of the programme, the EPWP will only make sense if it has the improvement of the future labour market performance of EPWP participants as its main goal, not job creation itself.
Judging by the UNDP report, the DA clearly has its ear much closer to the ground when it comes to the economic policy that South Africa needs to create jobs and opportunities for all. Thank you, Chair.