To the disappointment of the hon member from the EFF, the question reads as follows: What are the successes achieved by the National Treasury in upgrading economic planning and co-ordinating capacity of the state by working with other government
departments and international agencies in producing high quality evidence- based policy research?
The answer is as follows: Hon members, in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, MTBPS, Speech of 2018, I indicated that we are upgrading the economic planning and co-ordinating capacity of the state. Our programme entitled Southern Africa - Towards Inclusive Economic Development, SA-TIED, is a collaboration with various government departments and international research agencies to produce high quality evidence-based policy research and build the economic capacity of the state.
We are pleased to report immense progress in this regard. The SA- TIED programme covers the following thematic areas: firstly, enterprise development and job creation; secondly, public revenue; thirdly, macroeconomic modelling; fourthly, inequality; fifthly, climate change and energy transitions; and lastly, regional growth.
With regard to our research, we have published 78 research papers across these thematic areas since the start of our programme. These papers are all available on the SA-TIED website. Included in this number are 19 papers which are coauthored by South African government officials as well as 22 papers by young scholars - the
future economists and policy-makers of this country. We believe that robust empirical research is crucial to enhance the economic planning capacity of the South African state.
This work has already provided us with unique insights and galvanised our efforts towards transforming our economy. With regard to capacity-building and policy bridging, I can report to this House that we have undertaken various initiatives to strengthen the economic planning and co-ordination capacity. We have provided 14 government officials with the opportunity to obtain their PhDs in economics and related fields.
I must say I am sure if anyone of you applied to do a PhD in economics, we will give it due consideration. That is what you must aim for. We must aim to have the largest number of PhDs in our society, particularly in economics so that when we have an economics conversation, we really substantively have an economics conversation.
We are also in the process of providing secondments to up to 12 government officials to spend time at a national and international research institute to learn from academics and policy-makers across the world. The head of the economics unit at National Treasury now,
Dr Duncan Pieterse, has been seconded to Harvard University to go and interact with other academics and learn etc.
We have held 14 training courses in areas such as public economics and microsimulation modelling. We also instituted regular research seminars and a series of policy workshops and colloquium including a policy dialogue in August on South Africa's energy transition.
The well-discussed paper towards an economic strategy for South Africa ... that cost a lot of air ... they got attacked and called all kinds of names ... that paper came out of this programme. It is a research-based paper. It is not a gut feeling. That's the answer to the question.