Hon Deputy Speaker and hon members, since the state of the nation address in February 2018, government has undertaken a number of reforms within the economic and several institutions of state to stimulate growth and job creation. We have built a broad social consensus on the measures that need to be taken to fundamentally transform the structure of the economy so that it is more inclusive, more competitive and more labour intensive.
These efforts have resulted in initiatives such as the Jobs Summit, which we held last year and has produced practical measures to protect existing jobs and to create new ones. As part of this process, we have established regular monthly meetings with leaders of business, labour and communities to review progress in several areas of reform.
The paper published by the National Treasury in August 2019 on economic transformation, inclusive growth and competitiveness, proposed a range of additional reforms to address constraints to growth. These proposals have been extensively discussed not just in government, but also across society. The Minister of Finance alluded to this yesterday.
It is significant that the Treasury has received well over 800 substantive submissions on the paper, and has this week published a revised version of the paper, as the Minister said yesterday. As he said yesterday, this is a living document. It is a document which we would like all South Africans through their institutions, individually or otherwise to engage in because in the
main the document is much more about measures that we need to take to unlock constraints to remove blockages and generate economic growth. Some can be done immediately, some can be done later and some can be done much more later, and can be debated for quite a long time until consensus is reached.
Several reforms proposed have already been acted upon and we have seen important progress in several areas. To cite a few we have embarked on an integrated series of interventions to increase youth employment. The paper addresses the challenge of youth employment and we have through various discussions held elsewhere the Jobs Summit and in many other places embarked on various measures to precisely address this problem. The youth challenge is co-ordinated from the President's Office through the programme execution office that we have established.
Through the measures outlined in the Roadmap for Eskom which was released earlier this week by Minister Gordhan, we are taking steps to make the energy sector more efficient and more competitive. We are working with the
regulator on an accelerated timetable for the release of the broadband spectrum. We were able to have engagements with the regulator without compromising the regulator's independence. We asked the timeline and timeframes that they have in mind in terms of their regulatory process. They have been able to shed light on when the spectrum process would reach its fruition.
We have strengthened our competition legislation and we are reducing red tapes as part of our efforts to improve the competitiveness of our economy. We have undertaken several reforms to the visa regime to promote tourism and make it easier for business people, investors and tourists to visit South Africa. Through the implementation of these and several other measures contained in the Treasury paper, we are establishing a platform for a return to growth and for the creation of much-needed jobs.
May I say that some of these measures which were also addressed in the Treasury's paper were raised to us as government by the private sector. As we have held meetings with them they identified a number of issues
which we said we will address them. Some of them have to do with the Mining Charter and some have to do with things like water licenses. Some of them came to us and said we are prepaid to invest R7 billion, but we have been waiting for a year and more for water licenses. At the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac, forum which I attend every first Monday of the month, we were able to call the water licensing people and ask why it is taking so long for corporate who want to invest so much money for them to get licenses. And that on its own shed a great deal of light on some of the processes that they get involved in. And we said very clearly that we want the timeline to be reduced - to be reduced quite significantly. We are going to meet them again and I have said to them I want it to be cut by 50% and more. They are going to come with those answers.
We are embarking on a process of repositioning everything that we do in our economy - removing the constraints and addressing all these things. Unfortunately, these things take time.
Hon Steenhuisen, one of the reasons why we have an oversubscribed investment conference - which we are holding next - is precisely because many people in the private sector can see that we are not a government that is reluctant to put into effect reforms. They see that we are determined to reform and that is precisely what we are doing. When we engage with them they see that. Our continued engagements, consensus building and collaboration with the private sector is bearing fruits. Part of the fruits is the response to their attendance at the investment conferences. Thank you, Deputy Speaker.