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Engineering News reports that in a sector hit hard by job losses and a general lack of work, initiatives in the construction industry designed to support the growth, and survival, of emerging contractors, should attract greater public attention and draw the support from established companies in the construction industry.
This is the view of Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) CEO Cyril Vuyani Gamede, who points out that the best way for the government to stimulate the economy would be by developing and executing an infrastructure-led economic recovery plan. Gamede noted that a working partnership is already operational and achieving results. In 2019, the CIDB signed an agreement with the Jobs Fund and black-owned infrastructure company Concor, to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals who were seeking to gain a foothold in the sector. “The aim of the tripartite initiative by the CIDB, the Jobs Fund and Concor is to develop 195 SMEs, create 1,950 new permanent jobs and train 2,050 beneficiaries over a three-year period.” It envisioned that jobs will be created across the spectrum of construction activities – in plumbing, in building, in engineering, quantity surveying and project management. The participants in the initial stage of the partnership are primarily from Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, with some experience in civil contracting for the building of schools, residential and commercial developments. “It was quite clear from the outset that the biggest impediments to the growth of aspiring small ventures was access to capital and market opportunities as well as a lack of technical skills,” Gamede indicated. To overcome this, the initiative focused on technical skills, with the goal of improving in the CIDB gradings of participants.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
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