ATC130506: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on Budget Vote 28 and the Annual Performance Plan of the Economic Development Department for the 2013/2014 financial year, dated 30 April 2013

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on Budget Vote 28 and the Annual Performance Plan of the Economic Development Department for the 2013/2014 financial year, dated 30 April 2013

The Portfolio Committee on Economic Development having considered Budget Vote 28 and the Annual Performance Plan of the Economic Development Department for the 2013/2014 financial year reports as follows:

1. Introduction

The Department of Economic Development (the EDD) was established in July 2009. Its vision is to create decent work through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive growth. The EDD’s mission includes the following:

· Coordinating the contributions of Government Departments, State Owned Entities and Civil Society on Economic Development;

· Contributing to efforts that ensure alignment between the economic policies and plans of the State and its Agencies and Government’s political and economic objectives and mandate; and

· Promoting Government’s goals of advancing economic development with decent work opportunities.

The EDD has tabled an Annual Performance Plan (APP) for the 2013/2014 financial year which is based on the Strategic Plan tabled in March 2012 and which has the following strategic outcome-oriented goal and goal statement:

· Promote decent work through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive growth; and

· Provide participatory, coherent and coordinated economic policy, planning and dialogue for the benefit for all South Africans.

The Policy Mandate of EDD is integration, coordination and implementation of economic development initiatives and interventions in order to ensure economic growth on a new growth path that creates jobs and reduces inequality.

The EDD Policy Framework that has emerged over the nearly four (4) years of its life is based on a hierarchy of policy documents which are the following:

· State of Nation of Address (SONA) annually;

· National Development Plan November 2012 (policy);

· New Growth Path October 2010 (strategy);

· National Infrastructure Plan February 2012 (jobs driver);

· Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 April 2013 (jobs driver);

· Outcome 4, 5, 6, 7 delivery agreements;

· Outcome 4: Decent employment through inclusive economic growth;

· Outcome 5: Skilled and capable workforce to support inclusive growth;

· Outcome 6 : Efficient, competitive and responsive infrastructure;

· Outcome 7: Vibrant, equitable, sustainable rural communities; and

· Framework for South Africa’s response to the international economic crisis.

EDD inherited a Legislative Framework that regulates the functioning of the entities that the Minister of Economic Development oversees:

• Industrial Development Corporation Act, 1940, as amended; The Competition Act, 1998;

• Competition Amendment Act S16 (2008) s16 promulgated 2013; and

• International Trade Administration Act, 2002.

The Portfolio Committee on Economic Development (the Committee) is seized with aligning its oversight mandate with government imperatives of job creation, the reduction of income inequalities and eradication of poverty. The New Growth Path is one of the instruments developed to achieve the above stated goals.

The report compiled includes the budget vote and annual performance plan of the EDD only. The report on the annual performance plans of state owned entities will be done separately due to time constraints.

2. Briefing on the Annual Performance Plan of the Economic Development Department

The Committee received a briefing from the EDD on its Annual Performance Plan for the 2013/2014 financial year on 16 April 2013. The Minister gave a detailed presentation, contextualising the Annual Performance Plan of the EDD. The Minister was supported by the Director General and the following is an overview of the presentation.

2.1 Background to EDD Planning Framework

The Minister outlined the planning framework of the EDD, indicating that it comprises of the Strategic Plan and the Annual Performance Plan (APP). The Strategic Plan is a multi-year framework within which the EDD operates. The Minister indicated that the Strategic Plan is not normally revised annually and it is expected to be tabled at the start of a new administration. The APP, on the other hand, is an annual plan that sets out the performance indicators and budget that guides the work of the EDD. These are broken down further into quarterly targets where appropriate. The Minister indicated that he receives progress reports on performance from the respective divisions within the EDD. Further reports on EDD’s performance against targets are reported to the National Treasury and Parliament.

2.2 Economic Development Policy Context

The EDD continues to promote decent work through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive growth. It also continues to provide participatory, coherent and coordinated economic policy, planning and dialogue for the benefit of all South Africans. It was mentioned that integration, coordination and implementation remains key in the EDD’s policy mandate.

The EDD operates within a set legislative and policy framework and this was outlined in the presentation. It was indicated that the EDD was going to introduce three (3) legislations for consideration by Parliament and this includes the Infrastructure Development Bill, Amendments to Competition Act and the International Trade Administration Act.

In his explanation the Minister mentioned that within the context of the EDD, the NDP is a broad vision for overall economic and social development. It is also an integrator to connect the various elements of public policy and implementation capacity. The NGP is an economic strategy designed to shift the trajectory of economic development, including through identified drivers of job creation and achieving the NDP economic vision. The IPAP guides the re-industrialisation of the South African economy and gives effect to the NGP manufacturing jobs driver. The National Infrastructure Plan gives effect to the NGP infrastructure driver.

It was indicated that the EDD works with a range of other departments and agencies to support common priorities and initiatives and this includes collaboration through the Economic and Employment Sector Cluster and the Economic Development (MinMEC). The EDD will also continue to provide support to the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission (PICC), especially as the Minister is the head of the PICC Secretariat. The EDD will monitor and ensure implementation of the already signed Accords. The Minister also indicated that since the Cabinet decision to conclude a Youth Employment Accord to address high levels of joblessness among young people, the EDD had been requested to coordinate work on the Accord.

2.3 Overview of progress made

The Minister gave an overview of the progress made during the period October 2010 to December 2012. In terms of jobs, it was indicated that there had been an increase of 603 000 jobs and women’s jobs had increased to 283 400. African exports and trade with other African economies had directly generated 25 000 jobs and there was a labour intensity growth from 0.8% to 0.9%. The biggest job gains were recorded in Gauteng , Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal. The ratio of employed to dependents declined from 2.86% to 2.77%. It was also indicated that South Africa was now a member of Brazil Russia, India , and China (BRICS) block.

The Minister went further to indicate that during the period under review, Gross Domestic Product of 3% a year had been recorded and capital stocks had increased by 6.8%. The country had registered a significant decrease in inequality during the period 2006 - 2011. Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) funding of R30 billion had been approved and a R4 trillion infrastructure plan had been adopted. Manufacturing productivity was up and factories were using more capacity. International tourism was up two times above the global rate and new film studios and film productions had been registered. There had been new investments for the BMW 3-series, Ford Ranger, C-class Mercedes Benz and African Taxi production. The Minister indicated that despite all these achievements, more was still to be done especially on key plans outlined by the President in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) and the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP). Examples of some of the key plans highlighted were:

· . The eighteen (18) Strategic integrated projects covering the whole country;

· 150 000 construction jobs in state-led infrastructure projects monitored by the PICC

· 675kms of electricity transmission lines that were laid last year;

· Majuba rail line, which is the first large new rail line laid by the state since 1986; and

· De Hoop Dam together with the Mooi Mgeni Dam created a new water yield of 126 million cubic meters, which is significantly more than the water consumption of the city of Mangaung and Pietermaritzburg combined.

2.4 Challenges

The Minister explained some of the challenges facing the economic development sector and mentioned these as the:

· Unemployment levels which were still high and particularly youth unemployment

· Need to improve effective implementation of decisions

· Worsening global environment, rising electricity and other user costs and workplace and community conflicts.

2.5 The Role of EDD in general and in the development of Infrastructure

The major role of the EDD included the convening of meetings of the PICC Council, the Management Committee and rendering Secretariat support. The EDD will monitor and prepare quarterly updates, provide oversight of the 18 Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs). The quarterly reports will give update levels of implementation, spending and jobs. The EDD will further coordinate information to develop Skills Plans for every SIP and aggregate these into a National Skills Plan. The EDD was also charged with working with the IDC on localisation plans for every SIP; collecting and analysing data on quarterly infrastructure spending by key Public Agencies, Provinces, Metros and National Departments for Cabinet to consider. Most importantly, the EDD had to identify blockages in implementation and make recommendations to the PICC and Cabinet. EDD monitors worked to deepen the 20 year project pipeline by ensuring proposals were subjected to feasibility processes and that the necessary timelines were developed.

A significant function of the EDD is the support to the Minister of Economic Development in relation to his oversight responsibilities in relation to the following Entities reporting to EDD:

– Development Finance Institutions: Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Small Enterprise Finance Agency (sefa)

– Economic Regulatory Bodies: Competition Commission, Competition Tribunal, International Trade and Administration Commission (ITAC)

The role and functions of these Entities were outlined as follows:

Competition Commission and Tribunal:

· Reduce input costs in the economy;

· Increase levels of competition;

· Ensure mergers/acquisition approval promote public interest goals such as employment and small business development; and

· Investigate price-fixing and corporate collusion and take firm action.

International Trade Administration Commission:

• Promote improved trade levels, with a focus on a developmental trade policy that promotes industrialisation and jobs;

• Reduce input costs for value-added products through lower tariffs or rebates of duty; and

• Provide protection for industries as part of a plan to boost competitiveness and jobs.

The IDC, which is the country’s largest Development Finance Institution:

• Increase the level of funding;

• Decrease the time taken for approval of projects;

• Reduce the cost of lending to local companies;

• Shift to key New Growth Path sectors; and

• Improve development outcomes: jobs, rural development.

SEFA, which is the new agency for small business funding:

• Consolidate the work and operations of the three merged groupings into an effective small business funding machine;

• Improve the level of funding available;

• Measure the impact on SMMEs and cooperatives;

• Strengthen the capacity in rural areas and poorer provinces;

• Consolidate the work with other agencies and departments as well as provinces and local government; and

• Promote training and communication projects to support small business: e.g. partnership with South African Institute for Chartered Accountants (SAICA), launched on 18 July 2012.

The Minister in illustrating the role of the EDD with regards to infrastructure and localisation gave an example of the bus, train, taxi integrated transport project which connects buses, trains and taxis to provide urban workers with a cheaper and quicker means of travel. Other examples alluded to include the manufacturing of buses by Marco Polo plant in Gauteng . All the projects cited promote localisation, ensuring that manufacturing is done locally.

The EDD has played a unique role in Government through the initiation and signing of Social Accords between social partners around strategic New Growth Path initiatives. The social partners of Government, Labour, Business and the Community signed the following accords:

• Basic Education Accord, 13 July 2011;

• National Skills Accord, 13 July 2011;

• Local Procurement Accord , 31 October 2011;

• Green Economy, 17 November 2011;

• Presidential Special Agreement October 2012; and

• Youth Employment Accord, signed 18 April 2013.

An overview of the key phases of the EDD’s work from the year 2009 to 2013 was outlined. The Minister indicated that the work had happened in ten (10) phases which started from the establishment of the Ministry up to the launch and implementation of the infrastructure plan in 2013. The specific phases were outlined as follows:

· Phase 1: establish a Ministry for policy integration work (2009);

· Phase 2: co-ordinate response to recession/global economic crisis (2009-11);

· Phase 3: establish a functioning Department: EDD (2010-12);

· Phase 4: transfer 6 public entities to EDD and begin process of mandate alignment on jobs (2010);

· Phase 5: complete development of a New Growth Path: NGP (2010);

· Phase 6: align work in government to NGP; start implementing Outcome 4: Jobs and Growth and launch work on infrastructure jobs driver (2011-12);

· Phase 7: refocus the IDC and Competition and Trade Commission on jobs (2011-13);

· Phase 8: dialogue to develop social accords on key NGP areas (2011-13);

· Phase 9: consolidate small business entities (2012-13); and

· Phase 10: launch and implement infrastructure plan and strengthen NGP focus on industrial policy (2012-2013).

2.6 Organisational Environment

The Minister indicated that the EDD had received unqualified audits since its establishment and the necessary governance structures were in place. These included internal audit structures, audit committee, bid adjudication committee, supply chain management capacity and Human Resources (HR) related committees. Staff numbers had increased by 14% over the past financial year and 146 posts was targeted to be filled in the 2013/14 financial year. The EDD was expanding its premises to new offices on the DTI campus with 2056 square meters of new space allocated during the past financial year.

The Committee was also referred to the thirty eight (38) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) covering the four (4) programmes of the EDD which were contained in the Annual Performance Plan. It was indicated that the number of indicators had moved from forty one (41) in the 2012/13 financial year to thirty eight (38) in the 2013/14 financial year, whilst the number of products had increased from one hundred and forty eight (148) in the 2012/13 financial year to two hundred and twenty eight (228) in the 2013/14 financial year. The respective KPIs and the number of outputs in the different categories were outlined as follows:

· 8 Plans, strategies and instruments;

· 46 Meetings, dialogues and road shows;

· 67 Implementation actions including unblocking obstacles and policy interventions;

· 89 Reports and surveys monitoring, audits;

· 2 Agreements;

· 1 Industrial funding;

· 12 Capacity building and training;

· 3 Staff and administration targets;

· 228 is the total number of products.

In the 2013/2014 financial year the focus of the EDD will shift from policy development and planning to greater emphasis on implementation, providing for the following:

• Reviews of progress on all the Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) of the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP);

• Unblocking obstacles to the build-programme.

The Minister further indicated that the following will be considered going forward:

· The Entities will now be held accountable for direct impact of their work on jobs and development.

· A new indicator on jobs impact will be introduced and consolidated on a quarterly basis.

· The EDD will evaluate rulings and outcomes of Economic Regulatory Bodies to strengthen and monitor developmental impacts.

· Developmental assessments will be done for Entities to assess their impact on jobs, Women, Youth and Rural population.

· Additional funding of R30 million has been allocated in the 2012/2013 financial year budget to build capacity across Economic Regulators over next few years.

· Action to promote African regional integration will be an explicit KPI An amount of R5 billion will be targeted towards financial commitments for targeted NGP sectors, small businesses and companies in distress. This budget includes an additional allocation of R450 million over the medium term for the capitalisation of the SEFA through the economic competitiveness support package. Small business funding will be complemented by other actions such as the promotion of the SAICA partnership on skills

· The Small business entities will have targeted road-shows and stakeholder sessions to communicate available support facilities in government.

3. Deliberations

The observations and deliberations of the meeting as raised by the Portfolio Committee Members ( The Committee ) and responded to by the EDD are summarized and classified accordingly as follows:

3.1 Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan

The Committee acknowledged that the EDD’s mandate and scope is quite wide which poses a challenge, however, it would be helpful if the EDD could identify and be more specific on its projects and initiatives and clearly outline these in their APP. Thus the Committee wanted to know as to what specific projects or initiatives the EDD was going to focus on for the 2013/14 financial year.

The Committee raised concerns that the EDD’s indicators and most of its KPIs were not clear. The Committee also requested the EDD to indicate as to which KPIs it ought to be measured or assessed on and to also indicate progress on the Accords.

The Committee indicated that it will need an opportunity to engage on the expenditure estimates and the budget implications of EDD’s work. The Committee therefore indicated that the budget of EDD will have to be presented to the Committee at a later stage.

3.2 Implementation of NGP goals and initiatives

The Committee indicated that with regards to KPI 11, (Sector interventions aligned, evaluated and improved) the EDD with Government could do more in developing the economy.

The Committee observed and indicated to the EDD that they had since noticed that there was a lot of duplication on the delivery of outcomes within Government Departments.

The Committee mentioned that as much as all of the KPIs were important. It was critical to ensure that the creation of jobs was of top priority and high on the agenda of the EDD. It was also of critical importance to ensure that the poorer communities got the necessary education on economic assistance and opportunities. Thus the EDD was requested to indicate as to what it was doing to ensure creation of jobs and that the poorer communities are developed.

It was further indicated that it was important for the EDD to give specific and measurable data on the creation of jobs and progress made with the various projects.

The EDD was also asked to indicate as to what it was doing to ensure the employment and placement of youth after training.

The Committee wanted to know which companies had benefited from the Distressed Fund and whether it was possible for the EDD to give a report giving a breakdown of the beneficiaries in terms of gender and race.

In response to the above, the EDD indicated that KPI 11 defines what the EDD will be doing and indeed it was planning to enhance its work on this KPI and ensure that sector interventions are aligned. The EDD further indicated that what was a major challenge was the issue of integration, as it is a cross cutting issue.

On the issue of jobs, the EDD indicated that by the end of year 2012, there were increases especially in the net new jobs. This was according to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). On targets, the EDD was focusing on African trade within the context of the NGP and thousands of jobs were being created out of just trade within Africa . It was also indicated that global growth had continued to be a major driver to the economic development targets in South Africa and that jobs could be created in the short term by improving trade with new markets. However, long term job creation had to be done via sustainable and long term infrastructure growth. The EDD further indicated that there was significant increase in the net job growth and that unfortunately this was not usually noticed by the public at large. The Committee was told that it was important to note that there were short and long term jobs so a job for only a period of two (2) weeks could not be considered as a job because it was very temporary. The EDD emphasised that there was a need to ensure that targets and indicators were well understood and reported within the appropriate context.

On the issue of educating poorer communities, the EDD indicated that KPI 23 ( Road shows marketing the products of the Small Enterprise Finance Agency to SMMEs ) as indicated in the strategy was the main instrument used to educate poorer communities. The EDD indicated that in its APP there needed to be twelve (12) road shows to highlight the initiatives which government had for SMMEs and smaller communities. It was also mentioned that an impact had to be made in communities to assist in the education of poorer communities on opportunities, thus this new KPI was developed.

With regards to the Distress Fund, the EDD explained that the fund was for companies in distress. There was a KPI which set a financial target for the outflow of money from government to companies in distress, SMEs and NGP projects. It was indicated that this money was coming from the IDC and SEFA. In 2012, the IDC got a loan from the China Development Bank and a portion of the money was for companies in distress. It was elaborated that the idea of companies in distress came from a fund set up by the IDC to support companies which were affected by adverse global economic situations and not ordinary cash flow problems. It was not a grant but rather a loan and it was only given to companies whose distress was as a result of global issues and the company had a viable business plan.

3.3 Alignment of Policies and policy initiatives

The Committee wanted to know what and how the EDD was going to ensure that the differences with regards to the NDP were not going to compromise the implementation of the NDP which would have an impact on the achievement of the NGP.

The Committee also wanted to know whether there was coordination of work between staff that is assigned in the Provinces and those in National Office.

With regards to the implementation of the NDP and whether there was consensus, the EDD, indicated that there was consensus on many issues and that it should be taken into consideration that the NDP and its implementation was an on-going process.

3.4 Infrastructure Projects and Initiatives

The Committee highlighted that the interruptions at the Medupi Power Station were a critical blockage to the economic development of the nation. Thus the EDD was requested to indicate what it was doing to manage the blockages in the advancement of this project and also ensure that the development of this power station is not delayed by labour unrest.

In response the EDD indicated that on the blockages of infrastructure projects, the responsibility of government was to intervene and resolve crises and blockages. On the Medupi project specifically, it was mentioned that the Minister of Public Enterprises had led government’s intervention and that had been greatly publicized and was successful. The EDD indicated that it was unfortunate that it would not know or be able to predict future blockages so it could not cover this aspect of work in its strategic plan. However, when such a blockage happens, the EDD moves in rapidly. Examples of such interventions were common in the construction sector with shortages of cement, bitumen and other building material. It was indicated that the unblocking of challenges in infrastructure projects was one of the major duties of the EDD and .this required cooperation from other departments.

3.5 Organizational Structure and Personnel issues

In light of the revised strategy, the Committee indicated that it was of the view that also the organogram of the EDD had to be reviewed and aligned to the revised strategy, so as to ensure that the capacity challenges are addressed.

A number of staffing issues were raised including the high staff turnover within the EDD and the high vacancy rate. The Committee raised concerns about the vacant posts and wanted to know what plans are there to ensure that the post are filled expeditiously. It was indicated that the issue of vacant posts was becoming a concern as it had been raised several times before and the major concern being that this would adversely affect the EDD’s capacity to deliver on its mandate The Committee also raised concerns that there was no clear information on staff compliment, the number of vacant posts and how the EDD was planning to fill the posts. The EDD was requested to present its revised organisational structure or staff establishment and the strategy on how it planned to fill the vacancies.

In response to the above issues, the EDD indicated that:

With regards to staffing issues there was a process to map the staffing against budget programmes and this was reflected in the strategic plan. It was also indicated that the EDD was currently aligning the filling of posts per budget programme. The posts were going to be filled within the context of the current APP.

The EDD indicated that there was a transitional structure that had been approved and it had been funded across the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the value of 166 posts for three years. However, the evaluation was that the EDD needed to move forward cautiously and that because of the planning process the EDD was involved in the last quarter, it had set a target of 146 to155 vacancies, moving to an outer year of 166 vacancies.

The EDD also indicated that they were currently in the process of finalising their operational plans. They were also looking at a spending plan, which was the costing of those operational plans and the process of identifying exactly which posts were being funded. Once they had this, they would be able to move towards the filling of vacant posts. The EDD undertook to report back to the Committee with its transitional structure by end of May 2013. The EDD further indicated that it was in the process of hiring a head hunting company that would assist in sourcing appropriate and the required personnel.

3.6 SMME Development, Youth and Rural development

The EDD was requested to indicate what it was doing about youth unemployment and to also explain how far it was with the implementation of youth employment programmes.

The Committee registered its concern that economic development was concentrated mostly on the main Metro areas and big Provinces. The EDD was requested to indicate what was being done about the development of rural areas and other smaller and less developed Provinces.

The Committee emphasised the need for an establishment of an institution that would develop entrepreneurs. Thus the Committee suggested that the EDD should consider advancing the idea of developing and establishing a college or institution that will enhance the training and development of entrepreneurs.

In response to the above the EDD indicated that:

With regards to addressing youth unemployment, the management of EDD was working on the Youth Employment Accord and it was going to give an update to the Committee. The Minister agreed to the concern that the youth were having problems getting placements after training.

On youth employment, the EDD indicated that the signing of the Youth Employment Accord was going to be signed by Thursday, 18 April 2013 and the Committee was going to be updated on its implementation.

Regarding the development of rural areas, the EDD is a national department and does not interact extensively and directly with communities. Much of EDD's work is done with other government departments through which direct communications take place. The EDD ensures that the appropriate levels of interaction, co-ordination and implementation take place. For issues relating to provinces the EDD use the MINMEC and its technical forums. SMME and micro funding support is provided through sefa via its national and regional offices as well as through retail financial intermediaries. It is the intention of sefa to roll out an average of nine (9) branch offices per annum over the next five (5) years. Industrial lending is provided via the IDC and its regional offices to industry and the business community.

3.7 Other strategic issues

In light of the statement made by the Minister of Trade and Industry in support of the Walmart and Massmart merger, the Committee wanted to ascertain what the EDD’s stance was on Mergers and Acquisitions.

Noting that the EDD also does work on Regional Integration the Committee enquired as to whether there were any new signed trade agreements and the purpose of those agreements if there are. The EDD was further requested to notify the Committee on any plans to sign further agreements.

In response to the above the EDD indicated that:

The Government’s stance and policy on Mergers had not changed and that the ultimate objective is to protect South African jobs, grow the economy and improve infrastructure. It was explained that when Wal-Mart/Massmart merger was done it had to be in terms of South African law. The EDD had to ensure that the merger complied with the law. It was indicated that due process was followed and there has been many positives since the merger took place and some of the positives are that the employment standards and judicial issues were complied with. The court had ruled that a particular amount of money be given by Wal-Mart for local infrastructural development.

With regards to trade agreements, there were no new agreements that had been signed by EDD.

4 Recommendations

Based on the deliberations with the Economic Development Department, the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development recommends the following:

· The EDD should intensify its influence on narrowing the gap between the economically advantaged and disadvantaged Provinces.

· The EDD should identify priority areas, be more specific on its projects and initiatives and clearly outline these in the Annual Performance Plan (APP).

· The EDD should come up with a monitoring tool to track progress on all identified projects.

· The creation of jobs is a top priority, thus the EDD should give specific and measurable data on the creation of jobs, impact on jobs and progress made in relation to the implementation of the NGP.

· It is noted that emerging economies world-wide, grow mainly by supporting SMMEs and Cooperatives. Thus the EDD is urged to maximise its support for SMMEs and Cooperatives in order to speed up economic growth.

· The Committee supports the Youth Employment Accord and therefore urges the EDD to implement it as a matter of urgency.

· The EDD should focus on Africa Trade, within the context of the NGP in order to fast track job creation opportunities.

· The EDD should review its strategic plan on an annual basis together with its reviewed organisational structure. The organisational structure should be presented to the Committee by end May 2013.

· The EDD should provide a monitoring and evaluation tool that will measure the impact of its projects and programs.

· The EDD should enhance its oversight role over the Economic Regulatory Bodies and ensure transformation of their work to also enhance SMME Development.

· The EDD should focus on the implementation of all the 18 strategic infrastructure projects, especially those directed at the 23 poorest districts in the country.

· The EDD should strengthen interventions on addressing monopoly pricing and monopoly value chains and ensure that investigations on Anti-competitive behaviour are expedited.

Having considered the budget vote and the annual performance plan of the Economic Development Department, the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development recommends that the House endorse the 2013/14 Budget Vote 28 of the Economic Development Department.

Report to be considered.