South Africa: Setting Green-Economy Tone

2011 Budget could set green-economy tone

18th February 2011 - South Africa’s National Budget will be presented to Parliament on February 23, and it is expected that the National Treasury will allocate more funds to energy efficiency and ‘green’ projects as government seeks to grow the green economy.

In the Department of Economic Develop- ment’s New Growth Path (NGP) policy, government has stated its intention to grow the economy at around 7% over the next decade and create five-million additional jobs during this period in the key sectors of infrastructure, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism and the newest addition to this list – the green economy.

“Recent government policy documents identify increased energy costs as a major threat to the energy-intensive sectors in South Africa. This is of concern as the sector presents significant opportunities for the development of new industries to assist government in meeting its growth and job creation objectives,” says Deloitte tax director Duane Newman.

“An increased focus on the green economy in this year’s Budget, with some policy preroga- tives being expressed as part of the Budget pro- cess, may also see an additional budget being allocated to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and, potentially, the Economic Development Department to support their proposed green economy initiatives as expressed in their latest policy papers,” explains Newman. {continued}