{"id":32803,"date":"2013-03-04T20:42:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T18:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=32803"},"modified":"2013-03-05T08:41:59","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T06:41:59","slug":"it-is-all-about-jobs-for-sa-oecd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/32803\/it-is-all-about-jobs-for-sa-oecd\/","title":{"rendered":"It is all about jobs for SA: OECD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unemployment and inequality are the biggest problems facing the South African economy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD<\/a>) said on Monday.<\/p>\n

“Capital income is rising in South Africa, access to public services is improving, social conditions are strengthening, and crime rates are falling,” OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

“But unemployment remains stubbornly high and the distribution of income continues to be very skewed.”<\/p>\n

Gurrie said at a Midrand news briefing — also attended by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan<\/a> — that the problems South Africa faced were prevalent in other developing nations.<\/p>\n

“Real income growth has been sluggish compared to most other middle-income countries. As your National Development Plan identifies it, there is a burning need for faster progress, more action and better implementation.”<\/p>\n

Gurrie was presenting a report on an OECD study into South Africa’s economic growth since the dawn of democracy. It had conducted two similar studies in the past.<\/p>\n

The latest study identified weaknesses in the labour market and weak competition in the product market as some of the problems affecting growth.<\/p>\n

“One of the main messages of the survey, echoing previous ones, is that reforms should allow labour market outsiders, those without a job, to be taken into consideration when deciding on wages and work conditions,” Gurrie said.<\/p>\n

The study also identified education and “green growth” as two areas in which South Africa could boost its economic growth in the long-term.<\/p>\n

“The educational achievements of most South Africans remains below standard. Poor education standards are part of the legacy of apartheid,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It will take time to overcome this legacy. But the good news is that this process is underway.”.<\/p>\n

Gurrie commended South Africa for its success in increasing access to education.<\/p>\n

“There is now an urgent need to raise the quality of education. South African students fair poorly in standardised international tests.”<\/p>\n

In addition too few high school graduates qualified to go to the university.<\/p>\n

Strengthening school management and improving vocational training were some of the recommendations made by the study, he said.<\/p>\n

Gurrie said South Africa’s reliance on coal-generated electricity put the country behind its competitors.<\/p>\n

Taxes needed to be introduced to control carbon emissions, he said.<\/p>\n

He also warned that the volatility of the rand was an impediment to investors.<\/p>\n

“It makes it very difficult to plan… whether are you going to be selling domestically or are going to export. These are the questions that business [people] ask themselves and the volatility [of the rand] does not help.”<\/p>\n

Gordhan welcomed some of the proposals made by the OECD report, but said there were areas South Africa disagreed with.<\/p>\n

“You can’t manage the exchange rate. There are external circumstances and internal circumstances,” Gordhan said.<\/p>\n

More SA economy articles<\/h3>\n

Broadband penetration and GDP: where SA ranks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mokonyane mum on G-Link progress<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Gauteng Govt reshuffle sees focus on ICT investments<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

95% broadband coverage for Gauteng: Premier<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cape Town a \u2018blueprint\u2019 for telecoms in Africa?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unemployment and inequality are the biggest problems facing the South African economy, the OECD said on Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,86],"class_list":["post-32803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-oecd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32803"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32806,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32803\/revisions\/32806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}