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South Africa’s National Development Plan and its implications for regional development

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South Africa’s National Development Plan and its implications for regional development

South Africa’s National Development Plan and its implications for regional development

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In 2012/2013, the African National Congress and South African Government adopted the National Development Plan (NDP) as its launchpad and blueprint for a future economic and socioeconomic development strategy for the country. Supposedly incorporating both the more recent Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) and the Economic Development Ministry’s New Growth Path (NGP) into the new National Planning Framework, the NDP has critical and important implications for the various regional economic communities in southern Africa at present. The purpose of this contribution is to provide an overview and assessment of these possible implications.

The core issues contained in the NDP relate to economic growth and the ability of the growth initiative to broaden socioeconomic transformation in the country by 2030. However, a more detailed reading of the plan reveals the implications it has for the various regional communities with which South Africa is engaged.

These implications are to be found principally in Chapters 3 and 7, dealing respectively with ‘Economy and Employment’ and ‘Positioning South Africa in the World’. It is essential that the various regional economic communities that South Africa has commitments with (principally SACU and SADC) engage with the plan from this early stage rather than neglect it.


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