Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.
Photo: Elmond Jiyane, GCIS
Budget 2020: Tito wants your two cents’ worth on how to grow economy
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni wants your input on how to turn South Africa’s sluggish economy around.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.
Photo: Elmond Jiyane, GCIS
Mboweni has asked South Africans to send him their ideas on how to grow the country’s ailing economy.
The finance minister will deliver the 2020 national budget speech on February 26 and would like the public’s views on the following question:
“What can government do to achieve faster and more equitable economic growth? Answers can be sent via Twitter to @TreasuryRSA with the hashtag #TipsForMinFin and #Budget2019.
Responses can also be posted at the Treasury website.
“As usual the budget allocation always aims to strike a balance among competing national spending priorities. It is in this context that minister Mboweni invites South Africans to share their views about economic conditions and other issues they would like government to highlight in the budget,” said Mboweni’s office on Monday.
Mboweni’s Twitter comeback
And yes, the finance minister who “retired” from what he called “abusive” Twitter, is very much alive and tweeting after making his “comeback” on the popular social media platform after a two-month break.
Mboweni took to Twitter earlier in January to rant and rave about what he called the “inertia” on economic reform in the country.
UK-Africa Investment Summit and Davos
Mboweni and International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor are in London attending the UK-Africa Investment Summit rubbing shoulders with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as we speak.
And, yes, he is tweeting live from the summit as it unfolds:
The summit focuses on four interactive sessions on sustainable finance, trade and investment, future African growth sectors, and clean energy and climate.
Following the summit, Mboweni and Pandor would attend the 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos in Switzerland from January 21 to 24 where they would be joined by Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel.
“Team South Africa will communicate at both the UK-Africa Investment Summit and WEF platforms, the message that while South Africa faces challenges of weak economic growth and fiscal pressures, the country remains open for business as one of the best investment destinations in the world,” the Treasury said in a statement on Sunday.
‘Team SA’
“Team SA” would also highlight the strides being made to implement structural reforms to ignite economic growth; ease the cost of doing business; curb government debt; and stabilise state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
And with Eskom and SAA both in a rather “destabilised” state, it would be interesting to hear what “Team SA” will be putting forward as the “strides” that are being made when it comes to these two embattled SEOs…
— African News Agency (ANA); editing by Jacques Keet.
Additional reporting by Cornelia le Roux
