Forum 2006: Media
Mail & Guardian
21 October 2006
Cheaper Money the Key to Solving Jobs Crisis by Robert Pollen (click here to view the pdf)
Robert Pollin, Jerry Epstein, James Heintz and Leonce Ndikumana of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, US presented brief highlights of the major proposals from their recently published book An Employment Targeted Economic Programme for South Africa at the 2006 Forum. Pollin is a director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
SAFM
Morning Talk’sXolani Gwala interviewed Johann Fedderke (Economics Research Southern Africa, a treasury-funded think tank at UCT), and professors Pollin, Epstein, Heintz and Ndikumana of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on unemployment in South Africa, and the different views of how to combat joblessness.
19 October 2006
Business Day
20 October 2006
SA can ‘fill gaps in supply chain’ for public works by Hillary Joffe (click here to view the pdf)
Efforts by Transnet and Eskom to promote the development of local suppliers of capital goods for their infrastructure programmes aimed to address the real risk that parastatals might struggle to source some of the items they need on global markets, and would not delay the infrastructure roll out, the official responsible for driving the supplier programme said this week.
The public enterprise department’s Edwin Ritchken was speaking at a conference on accelerated and shared growth in SA, hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Development Policy Research Unit and TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies).
Business Report
20 October 2006
Treat First Data Releases with Caution, Says Lecturer by Ethel Hazelhurst (click here to view the pdf)
The release of important economic data always makes headlines. But Corne van Walbeek, a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town (UCT), warned yesterday that the statistical authorities and the financial press should treat initial releases with caution.
Van Walbeek, of UCT's school of economics, raised the issue in a paper presented at a conference arranged by the Development Policy Research Unit [and Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies]. Read more
24 October 2006
New jobs unlikely to help reduce poverty By Renee Grawitzky (click here to view the pdf)
Even if South Africa is to create new jobs in the period leading up to 2015, this is unlikely to make a major dent in reducing poverty. This emerged as the central policy question (aside from differences over the extent of poverty) during a debate on poverty and inequality at last week's Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies and the University of Cape Town Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) conference.
24 October 2006
First national income study takes off in 2007 By Renee Grawitzky (click here to view the pdf)
Johannesburg - The presidency has commissioned the country's first national income study to help the government get a better understanding of the extent of poverty. The study, which gets under way next year, is an acknowledgment that poverty remains a central issue. The national income dynamic study will be conducted by the SA Labour Development Research Unit (Saldru) based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), rather than by Statistics SA or the Human Sciences Research Council. The study will track 8 000 households indefinitely to provide policy makers with a better understanding of the dynamics of poverty.
