Posted: December 13, 2019
Inaugural Automotive Executive Oversight Committee Meeting |
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Ebrahim Patel hosted the inaugural Automotive Executive Oversight Committee (EOC) in Pretoria. The key responsibility of the EOC is the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the progress made in the implementation of the South African Automotive Masterplan towards the achievement of its objectives. The EOC is composed of representatives from the vehicle assemblers, automotive component suppliers, labour and government.
The meeting agreed to set up six working groups each of which will focus on a different pillar of the masterplan, namely; Local market optimisation, Regional market development, Localisation, Infrastructure development, Industry transformation and Technology & associated skills development. It is expected that the relevant government departments and agencies will be co-opted or invited to the various working groups according to their areas of responsibilities. The realisation of these six objectives are projected to have a fundamentally transformative impact on the position of the South African automotive industry. Minister Patel alluded to a wish that the EOC will contribute to the creation of a stable and predictable environment for Investment. “The meeting was an important moment for leaders across the industry to come together with government and look at how we can boost production exports of motor cars made in South Africa. We are already the continent’s biggest producer and we now want to be the producer of choice for the continent,” said Minister Patel. It is envisaged that the EOC will meet once every three months. The EOC also noted the industry performance with notable positive vehicle export performance, slight improvement in employment creation and continued investment notwithstanding the rather challenging economic environment. At 374 215 vehicles exported in the first eleven months of 2019 the industry is already at a new annual record with 351139 being achieved in 2018.
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