Cleaning, IT, textile and furniture suppliers could soon get a large slice of the government's lucrative spending pie when the cabinet approves its small enterprise service delivery programme next week.
It has finalised a list of 10 products which will be bought from small and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in an attempt to boost their fortunes and stimulate the sector, Trade and Industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa told reporters at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday.
This targeted procurement plan would also force the state to pay its suppliers within 30 days.
Small suppliers have in the past shied away from government contracts because of its inability to settle accounts promptly.
While Mpahlwa would not release the list of products and services before it was approved by the cabinet next week, it is expected to include cleaning services, clothing and textiles, advertising, travel, IT and furniture products.
Mpahlwa also revealed that the government had started implementing its new National Export Strategy that would ultimately allow small South African exporters to take advantage of multi billion-dollar international opportunities.
The DTI's export head, Riaan Le Roux, told the Cape Argus that the policy aligned the import opportunities of a certain country with local industrial capacity and the facilitation of South Africa's diplomats in order to secure lucrative contracts abroad.
"We currently have 99 000 product categories across 242 countries and by September hope to have an Internet site that exporters can use to see what opportunities are available," he said.
He described as an example how the DTI had, through public private partnerships, managed to get small South African producers to sell their wares to the developers of the $660 billion King Abdullah Economic City being built in the United Arab Emirates.
He said exporters were also being provided with opportunities in Russia, Brazil, China, India, the Arabian Gulf, East and West Africa.
He said the government's strategy would, however, only move into top gear after the 2010 World Cup.
This was because many of the country's local resources were needed for its own multibillion-rand infrastructure development programmes.
Source: Boyd Webb - http://www.busrep.co.za
