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South Africa has reiterated its support for the decision of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors about the dire need to promote employment policies in order to address the crippling unemployment crisis.
This followed an address by Sipho Ndebele, The department of labour’s chief director of international Relations.
He was speaking on the topic focussing on country strategies to promote growth and jobs.
“Consistent with the G-20 objective of strong, sustainable and balanced growth, there is general acceptance by G-20 members that the challenge of employment requires a significant scaling up of actions in support of employment promotion policies. Tripartite processes to promote coherence and complementarity between pro-employment macroeconomic frameworks and labour market interventions are being engaged”. Ndebele said.
“This is properly reflected in the general support by the Employment Task Force and Social Partners of the decision by G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to collectively commit to lift economic growth above the baseline forecasts over the next five years through a range of measures including employment and participation”.
It is within this approach that the G-20 Employment Task Team under the Australian Presidency decided on country’s comprehensive growth strategies. Core to these will be a focus on how well are these strategies developing; are these responsive to and address the main challenges facing the global economy! If any, what improvements can we employ and what challenges are currently existent, Ndebele said
He said South Africa thought it was very innovative for the Framework Working Group to agree on a peer review process even during the construction stage of these comprehensive strategies. This has allowed early insight of weaknesses into these strategies.
He said: “Commonly, key economic objectives of the strategies outline measures aimed at reinforcing the economic recovery that remains fragile and jobless through short, medium and long-term objectives. The focus is on key growth generating factors which includes addressing the output gap (growth friendly fiscal consolidation and the promotion of competitiveness); structural reforms to foster employment (change in activation policies, rationalization of flexibility, modernize collective bargaining); trade and investment (monetary policy, credit easing and infrastructure investment); education and skills development (school to work mismatch, apprenticeships)”.
He said “generally, there is common acknowledgement on the need for direct intervention in the economy through various policies. Such interventions are geared to contribute to lifting the growth domestic product by two percent above the trajectory by closing cyclical gap and enhancing growth potential”.
Ndebele said “the post crisis growth has remained weak and sluggish in most G20 countries save for a few. The weak global recovery has been compounded by international spill over effects from the financial market volatility since 2011-12”.
He said: “GDP growth driven by domestic demand/consumption as a way to increase living standards has emerged as a popular strategy employed by the G-20 members. The strategies show that consumption remains the main focus of boosting domestic demand whilst investment remains crucial in keeping growth stable with some countries expanding on their infrastructure investments which is expected to create significant numbers of direct and indirect jobs”.
He said: “The challenges facing G-20 member’s strategies in the battle to create jobs include a very limited role to social partners after the policy formation strategies”.
This followed an address by Sipho Ndebele, The department of labour’s chief director of international Relations.
He was speaking on the topic focussing on country strategies to promote growth and jobs.
“Consistent with the G-20 objective of strong, sustainable and balanced growth, there is general acceptance by G-20 members that the challenge of employment requires a significant scaling up of actions in support of employment promotion policies. Tripartite processes to promote coherence and complementarity between pro-employment macroeconomic frameworks and labour market interventions are being engaged”. Ndebele said.
“This is properly reflected in the general support by the Employment Task Force and Social Partners of the decision by G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to collectively commit to lift economic growth above the baseline forecasts over the next five years through a range of measures including employment and participation”.
It is within this approach that the G-20 Employment Task Team under the Australian Presidency decided on country’s comprehensive growth strategies. Core to these will be a focus on how well are these strategies developing; are these responsive to and address the main challenges facing the global economy! If any, what improvements can we employ and what challenges are currently existent, Ndebele said
He said South Africa thought it was very innovative for the Framework Working Group to agree on a peer review process even during the construction stage of these comprehensive strategies. This has allowed early insight of weaknesses into these strategies.
He said: “Commonly, key economic objectives of the strategies outline measures aimed at reinforcing the economic recovery that remains fragile and jobless through short, medium and long-term objectives. The focus is on key growth generating factors which includes addressing the output gap (growth friendly fiscal consolidation and the promotion of competitiveness); structural reforms to foster employment (change in activation policies, rationalization of flexibility, modernize collective bargaining); trade and investment (monetary policy, credit easing and infrastructure investment); education and skills development (school to work mismatch, apprenticeships)”.
He said “generally, there is common acknowledgement on the need for direct intervention in the economy through various policies. Such interventions are geared to contribute to lifting the growth domestic product by two percent above the trajectory by closing cyclical gap and enhancing growth potential”.
Ndebele said “the post crisis growth has remained weak and sluggish in most G20 countries save for a few. The weak global recovery has been compounded by international spill over effects from the financial market volatility since 2011-12”.
He said: “GDP growth driven by domestic demand/consumption as a way to increase living standards has emerged as a popular strategy employed by the G-20 members. The strategies show that consumption remains the main focus of boosting domestic demand whilst investment remains crucial in keeping growth stable with some countries expanding on their infrastructure investments which is expected to create significant numbers of direct and indirect jobs”.
He said: “The challenges facing G-20 member’s strategies in the battle to create jobs include a very limited role to social partners after the policy formation strategies”.