Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism MEC Mcebisi Jonas unveiled details of the Job Summit on Tuesday, saying it would help to ensure that the provincial government’s three-year programme of action represented the most coherent, integrated and focused intervention ever.
Several cabinet ministers will attend the launch of the Job Summit on Thursday in East London when details of how national government will augment the province’s efforts to create jobs for the people of the Eastern Cape will be made public.
The Provincial Government is seeking to create more than 150 000 decent jobs by 2015.
The MEC said that the “ambitious programme also aimed at boosting levels of economic growth to 5% by 2016 if our resilience to the global economic crisis shown over the last 12 months is sustained.
Jonas said the Jobs Summit marked the launch of an integrated and sustainable offensive against unemployment, one of the greatest challenges facing the country and the Eastern Cape.
Jonas said a sustainable solution to the challenge of unemployment was to be found in shifting most households from reliance on social security to wealth creation in the economy of the Eastern Cape.
He said the Jobs Strategy that would be launched at the summit had five pillars; job retention; new jobs in priority sectors; social economy; economic infrastructure and skills development.
The MEC said that given the levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality in the Eastern Cape the Province needs to run, while others are walking, "for us to be able to close the gap of years of gross under-investment in this province’s economy."
Among the cabinet ministers who will attend the summit are: Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti; Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel; Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant and Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba.
The summit will run concurrently with the Provincial Jobs Fair to be launched by Oliphant.
