This past week the leadership of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), of which Agbiz is a member, met with the Presidency to convey its position on what is necessary to ensure significant and inclusive economic growth for South Africa. Please click on BUSA presentation to peruse BUSA's submission, as well click on BUSA's observations on the high-level meeting. Given the recent down-grading of South Africa's economic growth prospects for 2013, and concerns that investment confidence is slowly being eroded,  there is a fundamental need and imperative to build trust between government and business, and to develop a shared agenda. However, previous similar consultative meetings have generally not resulted in the desired outcomes and it remains to be seen whether this approach will be considered seriously.

Parliamentary submission on SA Development Indicators

The Department of Performance and Monitoring in The Presidency this past week submitted their Development Indicators for South Africa to the Select Committee on Budget Allocations in Parliament. Please click on link to peruse interesting submission.

StatsSA hosted a press release on 5 August 2013 on the findings on the status quo of agricultural households in the Census 2011. This information is perhaps a good indication of the numbers, living standards, education levels and rural development objectives of and for the livelihoods in the rural agricultural areas, but it is very difficult to derive much from a commercial agriculture point of view. Basically the drawback is that a household with a home garden and a big commercial production enterprise are both considered as agricultural households. StatsSA makes the assumption that a household, with, for example 100 or more heads of cattle, chicken, or goats respectively identifies the household to be commercial; which is not a feasible assumption to make. Therefore, making it impossible to compare it with findings of the Agricultural Census 2007, or to make commercial business decision from it. It emphasises the need for another dedicated Agricultural Census. Such a census would enable policy makers to make concrete policy decisions, such as for agricultural infrastructure or market development programmes.

Click to access the report "Census 2011 Agricultural households, Key Highlights".

The Department of Energy (DoE) submitted its update on the Biofuels Strategy to the Energy Portfolio Committee in Parliament on the 13th of August 2013. The submission focuses on:

The dti has noted with keen interest that some companies require adequately export development capacity building to better understand export issues and able to participate in the international market with ease. As a result, the dti has developed a National Export Development Programme (NEDP) with recommendable interventions to assist South African emerging exporters, using different assessments methods to identify company's export development needs.  

In this instant, the dti wishes to dedicate this opportunity and encourage emerging exporters to complete the linked questionnaire and email or fax it back to:  Ms Lizzy Mashiloane

E-mail: lmashiloane@thedti.gov.za

Fax: 012 394 2183,

The questionnaire intend to assist the dti in adequately recommending appropriate export capacity building before any planned export training is recommended immediately. The broader content of the training will be aligned to the linked Global Exporter Passport Initiative Programme, which is the integral part of the NEDP Capacity Building for emerging exporters. Closing date for applications is Friday, 16 August 2013.

Please click on link to peruse the EBB»

Dr Lindiwe Sibanda, CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), this past week released the FANRPAN Quarterly Newsletter. Please click on link to peruse»

10 - 11 September 2013, Shanghai and

Enquiries: Makana Gerald Mandiwana at the Department of Trade and Industry, e-mail: MGMandiwana@thedti.gov.za