On 1 March 2010 at a venue at the University of Johannesburg, the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) (www.gcro.ac.za) hosted a seminar to discuss two policy documents recently adopted by the Gauteng Government, namely the Gauteng Industrial Policy and the Developmental Green Economy Strategy for Gauteng. Firoz Cachalia, the MEC for the Department of Economic Development (DED) who has been the political head of this policy process, opened the seminar by arguing that the Gauteng Government believes that is necessary to reconcile sustainability and industrial growth. The Industrial Policy was presented by the authors of the policy – the Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development unit at University of the Witwatersrand. The Green Economy strategy was presented by Mark Swilling on behalf of the Sustainability Institute team that drafted the document under the leadership of Frank Spencer. Significantly, there is considerable overlap between the two documents. The Industrial Policy proposes a medium-tech light industry future for Gauteng which means moving away from a dependence on energy intensive mining and heavy industry sectors. The Green Economy strategy proposes a range of interventions in transport, water, energy, waste and human settlement planning that will result in the decoupling of growth rates from rates of resource consumption. The Gauteng Economic Development Agency has been mandated to implement a strategy for building a renewable energy industry in Gauteng.
Link to Engineering News story: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/gauteng-outlines-green-economy-plan-2010-05-28
Full speech by MEC Cachalia: http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2010/10052816151001.htm