Oceans economy could create one million jobs says Chikunga

07 July 2015 - 21:23 By RDM News Wire
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A fishing boat. File photo.
A fishing boat. File photo.
Image: Thinkstock Images

South Africa is situated on one of the busiest international sea routes‚ critical to international maritime transportation‚ and its geographical location presents a huge opportunity for investing in a diversified maritime market‚ Lydia Sindisiwe Chikunga‚ deputy minister of transport‚ said on Tuesday.

Chikunga said that according to research‚ the oceans economy had the potential to add up to 9.8-billion pounds to the gross domestic product and create more than one million jobs.

She was speaking at the Operation Phakisa Oceans Economy investment seminar‚ hosted by the South African High Commission to the UK and Northern Ireland‚ in London on Tuesday.

Operation Phakisa sets to ensure faster implementation of the various sectors of economic growth programmes‚ and for the transport sector the maritime sector was identified.

“Our proximity to the growth markets of the offshore oil and gas markets in the East and West Coast mean we are within a few days by ship to these waters. This presents a good opportunity for ships and rig repair and through Operation Phakisa‚ South Africa is fast tracking the delivery of rig repair infrastructure. Our ports authority will be showcasing our efforts in this regard.

“Our market incorporates the entire maritime economy value chain‚ from transportation to exploration and exploitation of non-living resources in offshore oil and gas as well as offshore mining.

“We also have a programme of developing the living resources and in this regard we have a programme on the development of the aquaculture.

“One of the underlying challenges identified by experts when developing our own strategy was the shortage of requisite skills and expertise to achieve the targets we have set for ourselves. Therefore it becomes extremely urgent that we need to move with great speed in developing particularly our research and innovation capabilities.”

RDM News Wire.

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