In his budget speech, my colleague, the Honourable MEC for Finance, Mr Peter Miller, drew our attention to the fact that the economic growth of our province has not kept pace with that of other provinces and the country as a whole.
Of particular concern has been the decline in performance of our manufacturing and agricultural sectors. Our weak economic performance has not allowed us, as government, to address both the root causes and the symptoms of poverty in the province. As the Gateway Province to the rest of South Africa and our northern neighbours KwaZulu-Natal is considered to have a comparative advantage over other provinces particularly in the manufacturing, agriculture, tourism and transport sectors.
Our comparative advantage is based on the fact that we are a relatively small province with a large population. We are then well placed to become the hub of South Africa's economic renaissance. Minister Miller is quite correct to raise the alarm.
Clearly we cannot continue to under-perform and still retain our status as the Gateway Province to Southern Africa. We need to take cognisance of the fact that our status is now being challenged by developments in Mozambique. I refer here to:. Our current status is that KwaZulu-Natal is the critical route in South Africa's global supply chain.
Our comparative advantage as a province lies in the fact that our own supply routes are so much shorter than those of other provinces. These relative costs give an indication of the strength of KwaZulu-Natal's comparative advantage to perform well within South Africa's and the global economy. When we talk about logistics we are talking about efficient freight transport systems.
