the dti and Eastern Cape Government host a Forestry and Timber Summit in Mthatha

Published: 21 February 2007
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mandisi Mpahlwa will deliver a keynote address at the two-day Forestry and Timber Processing Summit that will be hosted by the dti and the Eastern Cape Provincial Government at the Mthatha Health Resource Centre from 25-27 February 2007. the dti, jointly with the Eastern Cape Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism have identified forestry and timber processing as a potential growth sector in the Eastern Cape province. This is in line with the President’s State of the Nation Address of 09 February 2007, which listed the acceleration, and finalisation of development programmes for forestry and its downstream processing industries as a key tenet of industrial policy. The Eastern Cape province have great potential for growth and job creation in forestry and downstream processing industries. Consequently, the summit will be attended by the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Ms Lindiwe Hendricks, the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Mrs Nosimo Balindlela, the Eastern Cape MEC for Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism, Mr Mbulelo Sogoni and several Executive Mayors of the Eastern Cape province. The purpose of the summit was well captured by Minister Mpahlwa, during the recent OR Tambo District Growth and Development Summit, where he argued that the region needed to build regional competitive capabilities and establish firm-level support measures to enhance performance in enterprise establisment, business growth and retention, as well as attracting foreign direct investment. The summit will compile strategies to enhance local economic activities in all local municipalities that endowed with forests and plantations. It will also focus on improved access to regional economic opportunities, especially through beneficiation strategies thus unlocking linkages with areas with significant concentrations of poor and unemployed people. The summit forms part of the resolutions taken at the 2006 Eastern Cape Job Summit. Participants in the jobs summit committed themselves to collaborating to build a robust social partnership to support of the 2014 targets the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP). These include halving the unemployment rate by 2014, and maintaining an economic growth rate of between 5% and 8% per annum. The forestry sector and its downstream processing are key industries in achieving these objectives. Representatives from the timber and forestry industry such as Sappi, Furntech, Global Forestry Products, Eastern Cape Development Corporation, Small Medium and Micro entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs, local investors, financial institutions like the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and labour will also attend. Some of the topics to be covered at the summit are: Future timber supply and demand scenarios for SA Forestry and Processing Opportunities & Recent Developments in the Eastern Cape Opportunities / mechanisms for Skills Development in the Forest Sector Technology Transfer; Bridging the technological divide It is envisaged that outcomes of the summit will form part of the Regional Industrial Development strategy (RIDS). These are projects such as industrial restructuring, industrial clustering and local enterprise support have already received coverage within the RIDS strategic objectives of regional economic growth as well as reduction of poverty and unemployment.