14 June 2007
We are meeting here today to lay yet another foundation in our effort to build Gauteng as a globally competitive city region.
When we launched our strategy on the city region, we recognised that apartheid had left us a legacy of a unique spatial planning, with townships established as ghettoes for cheap labour far from places of economic activity. We said: "The Gauteng city region today faces the challenge of continuing to reverse the legacy of inequality and uneven development and break apartheid spatial settlement patterns to ensure more even development and opportunities for all".
The spatial development perspective we are launching today is therefore our response to that challenge. It maps out current and future development patterns for the province, including social, economic, infrastructure, human settlement, environmental, transport and other characteristics.
This spatial development perspective aims to ensure better urban and land use planning. It takes into account and aims to provide a framework for the spatial development plans of cities and other municipalities.
It serves as a platform to guide and align infrastructure investment and development spending across Gauteng and by various spheres of government and the private sector.
In line with this, public sector fixed investment will now prioritise existing areas of economic activity, areas of potential economic activity and areas that play a supportive role in the regional economy.
In addition, we will promote socio-economic inclusion by paying particular attention to investment in areas of economic activity or potential economic activity which coincides with really poor areas.
It is widely acknowledged that Gauteng is the country's economic engine - the powerhouse that propels significant sections of the country's economy. It also produces over a third of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the fourth largest economy in Africa.
Like other city regions worldwide, we face rapid urbanisation alongside massive in-migration to Gauteng from other parts of the country as well as from other parts of our continent and the world. While this poses significant challenges in putting pressure on infrastructure, state resources and services, it also has exciting possibilities in attracting skills and innovation, creating new and more viable markets and in making Gauteng a dynamic, diverse, innovative and productive urban hub.
All global city regions attract people and rapid urbanisation and population growth in Gauteng will continue for the foreseeable future. The challenge is for all of us to effectively confront the challenges.
This is what the perspective we are launching today is all about. Its ultimate goal is to support higher and balanced economic growth, improve livelihoods of the people of Gauteng, and ensure hassle-free mobility and access to economic opportunities.
Among the central priorities of our people are the creation of decent work and the reduction of poverty. We have committed ourselves as a province to contribute to the national goal of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014.
Our ability to create quality jobs and sustainable livelihoods for our people depends in large measure on our ability to identify key developmental challenges facing a particular area, understanding the strengths and opportunities inherent in that area and to come up with a set of guiding principles to be followed by all spheres and sectors of government and other role players to address these challenges.
Our spatial development perspective therefore outlines a common understanding and response to the developmental challenges of specific geographic areas in Gauteng. It ensures focused and prioritized intergovernmental action.
It provides a spatial dimension to the provincial Growth and Development Strategy and will be a key component in the development of municipal IDP'S and the development of sector strategies such as housing and transport strategies.
In line with ASGISA and the national spatial development framework, our perspective is intended to serve as a catalyst to accelerated and shared economic growth and development. It will enable us to focus on and prioritize areas and sectors generating growth in order to achieve the 8% growth target by 2014 and ensure that this growth is shared and contributes to the reduction of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.
The current spatial trends, which reinforce exclusion, have up to now been a key inhibitor to shared economic growth. We are however hopeful that the implementation of our provincial spatial development perspective will ensure the attainment of our goal of building a better Gauteng, underpinned by a growing economy that creates jobs and promotes balanced growth.
As we implement this perspective we must not loose sight of the need for us to think Gauteng wide and coordinate our planning and implementation. This we must do in order to respond comprehensively to the development challenges facing our province.