NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL POLICY FRAMEWORK. In January 2007, Cabinet adopted the National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF), which sets out government’s broad approach to industrialisation. The NIPF identifies a challenge in the South African labour economy. The NIPF is written with the view to create a competitive national environment for investment, create capability in Trade and Investment South Africa for investment promotion in line with global best practices and investor after care services (which it identifies as being effective in encouraging further investment); provide input into the development of incentives which take cognisance of global best practices; and to develop an effective investment monitoring and evaluation framework. The objectives of the strategy are: To facilitate diversification beyond our current reliance on traditional commodities and non tradeable services, which requires the promotion of increased value‐addition, characterised particularly by movement into non‐traditional tradeable goods and services that compete in export markets and also against imports; To ensure the long‐term intensification of South Africa’s industrialisation process and movement towards a knowledge economy; To promote a more labour‐absorbing industrialisation path, with the emphasis on tradeable labour‐absorbing goods and services, and economic linkages that create employment; To promote industrialisation, characterised by the increased participation of historically disadvantaged people and marginalised regions in the industrial economy; and To contribute towards industrial development in Africa, with a strong emphasis on building the continent’s productive capacity.
