Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, members and guests, in the absence of my hon colleague Graham McIntosh, I am honoured to participate in this Budget Vote debate. Given the current status of the world economy, the Department of Trade and Industry, via its programmes, plays an extremely important role as an agent of economic change. This requires innovative new support strategies for enterprises and new business development initiatives.
From a women's empowerment perspective, it is encouraging to see the finalisation of the National Strategic Framework on Women's Gender and Economic Empowerment as part of its policy thrust and development trajectory. Cope will monitor the support given to the 60 new projects by the Isivande Women's Fund. Our economy is continually shedding jobs and Cope, taking cognisance of the unacceptable levels of unemployed youth, endorses the initiative to develop a specific youth enterprise development programme.
One area of particular concern is the small, medium and micro enterprises sector. Despite numerous policy reviews and the amalgamation of various entities to serve the sector, the survival rates of small businesses are declining. We feel that the amount of R190 million is insufficient to address the huge challenges faced by the sector. Another contentious issue is the burden of codified compliance that the Companies Act places on smaller SMMEs. There needs to be some leeway to exempt these companies from the myriad reporting obligations and the setting up of committees, as stipulated in the amended legislation.
To ensure more efficient implementation of its mandate, the operational systems of the National Consumer Commission, NCC, need to be put in place. The NCC plays an important role as the champion of consumer interests and gives effect to the Consumer Protection Act. It needs to function optimally. Furthermore, questions around the suitability of the chief executive officer need to be addressed urgently. We believe that under the previous chief executive officer, Gabriel Davel, the performance of the National Credit Regulator had been exemplary. However, recent media reports of the loss of experienced personnel are cause for concern.
Hon Minister, we need to extract maximum leverage from our Brics membership in terms of increasing the multilateral trade among the member countries. Business expansion into the African continent should be a priority focus and development of incentives and support to encourage outward trade missions is imperative. Hence, the Africa economic development programme should have its budget increased. Given the economic meltdown in the eurozone, the need to continue the search for new markets is important. With our increased investment in Mozambique, Angola, and our links with Brazil, I would like to suggest that we forge closer relationships with the community of Portuguese-language countries.
The Industrial Policy Action Plan remains a key driver of policy in respect of priority sector support, but it requires regular feedback with regard to sector development plans and performance.
The department must be congratulated on changing the preferential procurement legislation to guarantee that more local content is procured in relation to goods and services. However, this needs to be closely monitored to ensure that it is adhered to throughout the state sector. With regard to the company registrations, we hope that all the problems experienced by the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office at the time have been resolved. Also, we need to reduce the registration period for new companies to expedite potential foreign investment into our country.
Cope welcomes the interventions put in place by the Department of Trade and Industry to address the negative consequences of the global financial crisis. However, despite intervention in the clothing sector, jobs are still continually being shed. With regard to the behaviour of businesses, both locally and abroad, Cope supports the development of a code of conduct for business. In conclusion, the programme priorities and budgets attached reflect the objectives of what the department wants to achieve. I want to congratulate the director-general, Mr Lionel October, and his team for bringing fresh impetus to the Ministry through his innovative and strategic leadership. [Applause.]