The South African Local Government Association (Salga) Limpopo hosted a Local Economic Development Seminar with the theme “A Multidisciplinary Approach in Municipal Planning” at Meropa Casino and Entertainment World last Wednesday.
Participants included Economic Development, Environment and Tourism MEC Seaparo Sekoati, representatives from the Office of the Presidency, Office of the Premier, Executive Mayors and Mayors, Municipal Managers, Local Economic Development Portfolio Chairpersons and Councillors, state owned entities, local economists and the private sector. Malesela Dikgale, Chairperson of the Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders, also attended.
The seminar interrogated means and ways to expand the productive capacity of local economies, forge strategic partnerships with state owned entities in alignment of investments in municipal areas and to take advantage of the current era of knowledge economy and technological innovation to build resilience into local economies. It also aimed to formulate local strategies to meet the high-level targets set out in the newly adopted Limpopo Economic Development Blueprint, to prepare for the coming Provincial Economic Indaba in May 2016; and to ensure maximum impact and zero wastage of effort through integrated planning from the National Development Plan level, right through to the Provincial Planning Perspective and up to the local level.
In the key note address, Sekoati said that local government provides a space where the people’s dreams, hopes and aspirations finds concrete realisation. “It is also a sphere of government that is closest to our communities and provides direct access to our communities to interface with government. The nature of local government dictates that it stays continuously relevant, transformative and functional to continuously meet the needs of our communities in a sustainable manner,” Sekoati said and added that the Back to Basics project outlines as part of the key performance areas the creation of decent living conditions which takes into account the planning, implementation and maintenance of infrastructure as critical for sustaining basic standards of living and economic activity in villages, towns and cities.
Sekoati said that a Local Economic Development (LED) component must enable a municipality to comprehend the investment climate and make it conductive for local business and must be in a position to support the formation of new enterprises and create new opportunities. It should also be in a position to facilitate planning in physical infrastructure, take into account the creation of soft infrastructure like regulatory matter, educational and workforce development and create an enabling environment for both domestic and international investment. “The LED component should provide support for informal and new emerging businesses and for SMMEs to grow and identify and support particular clusters of businesses. An LED that is able to undertake these measures will without doubt create and enhance competiveness, increase sustainable and inclusive growth,” Sekoati said and concluded by saying that a fully capacitated LED must incorporate environmental planning, infrastructure provision, real estate development and finance in its function.
“Everything that we have alluded to, says to us that there is no economic growth without capacitated local government.”
Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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Photo: David Magabe, Salga Limpopo Chairperson and Seaparo Sekoati, Economic Development, Environment and Tourism MEC at the seminar.
