Deputy Chairperson, within the context of the raging community protests, Operation Hlasela has presented itself as an important platform of exchange, communication and liaison with our communities. We now understand the mood and frustration of our people better.
They also get a better idea of what it is that government is doing and the constraints that exist. This operation is helping us, as the government, to get the basics right; for as long as basic services are not rendered to the full potential of government the frustration of our people will deepen.
Operation Hlasela is a clarion call to all our social partners and civil society to collaborate with government to jointly and urgently eliminate duplication and wastage, eradicate poverty, tackle underdevelopment and stimulate our economy to improve the lives of our people. Operation Hlasela is intended to consolidate, and not replace, all existing government programmes to ensure maximum impact.
We are working very hard in the province to develop our provincial economy to create decent work. We are employing measures to mitigate the impact of the current economic recession as well as addressing structural faults in our economy.
At the end of the third quarter, we will report on the progress with regard to the number of job opportunities has have been created, as part of the 50 000 job opportunities announced by our premier during this financial year.
The Harrismith logistical hub remains our high-impact economy project and will be utilised to build a provincial industrial economy. The Bloemfontein- Maseru passenger rail project, which we are pursuing with the national Department of Transport, will go a long way in reviving our economy.
The private sector continues to leverage economic opportunities by increasing investment in the accommodation and retail sectors. In our province hotels and malls are being built at a rate that has not been seen in recent times.
We are resolute in increasing health care, and education and training opportunities. The provincial treasury is working with the provincial department of health to turn the financial situation around so as to increase the efficiency of the supply of medicines and the roll-out of ARVs. Early next year, the province will witness the first reopening of a nursing college, particularly to train auxiliary nurses. [Applause.] In January 2010, we will be handing over 15 school buildings, which are platooning schools.
The Free State government is also looking, with keen interest, at the recent developments at the University of the Free State. It is our belief that institutions win public confidence and trust by way of the extent to which they are transformed. We will play a constructive role in this regard, because we believe that building a truly non-racial South Africa is non-negotiable in our country. [Applause.]
We have major township revitalisation projects in Mangaung, Kroonstad and Harrismith, which will witness the building of houses and restoration of historical sites, upgrading of streets and building of government offices.
We are putting in place measures to ensure that our infrastructure investment of R7,7 billion will help in building the industrial capacity of the provincial economy over a period of three years. We will build a whole value chain in the construction industry to improve contractor capacity to provide quality infrastructure, brick manufacturers and suppliers of building materials.
We will also build other major industries in the province such as mining, agriculture and manufacturing. The declining mining industry has a terribly negative effect on our economy, as it increases unemployment and poverty. Chairperson, as has already been witnessed in our province, we have had a lot of cases of desperation that have led to illegal mining - a situation that we are urgently attending to. We are, therefore, engaging with the national Department of Mining in an exercise aimed at reviving the productive business of mining and the related spin-offs.
Rural development is of strategic importance to us because our province is largely rural. Rural development is a transversal function that has to be performed in collaboration with other government departments, provincial as well as local.
We are in the process of developing a comprehensive rural development strategy for the province. The main tenets of such a strategy will be building social infrastructure, economic infrastructure and public amenity facilities in rural areas, and land reform and agrarian change.
In the province, our focus will be on traditional rural areas such as Qwaqwa and Thaba Nchu, as well as farms that are spread throughout the province, and small rural towns that are concentrated in the Xhariep district particularly. We have R28 million from the province for rural development and R50 million from the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform allocated to the province. We have already begun work on the following rural development flagship projects which are part of Operation Hlasela, namely the Cornelia Premier flagship project; the Diyatalawa agricultural project, which is a pilot site for comprehensive rural development which is to be launched soon; the agricultural demonstration centre ... [Time expired.] Thank you. [Applause.]