It is said that there is ‘old news’, ‘yesterday’s news’, and ‘new news’. But why can there not be ‘no news’ as well? By ‘no news’ I mean information that simply is not, could not, and should not ever be considered as news.

The headline ‘Manufacturing-led, export- oriented strategy will grow economy, create jobs’ is a case in point. One must suffer from regular bouts of amnesia, reminiscent of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in the 2004 movie 50 First Dates, to find any enthusiasm when faced with yet another economic growth strategy vision for South Africa.

In July, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) issued a media statement in which its Deputy Minister, Andrew Whitfield, is cited as saying: “It is essential that South Africa’s economic growth is grounded in manufacturing-led growth and an export-oriented economy. To this end, the department will support local industries to increase their manufacturing capacity and volumes, enhance their competitivess, and identify suitable export markets for their manufactured products.” Yes, ‘competitiveness’ was misspelt, which you might consider a tad pedantic for me to point out. Still, as the late, great author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame said: “The little things are infinitely the most important.”

The Deputy Minister was speaking during the debate on the Budget Vote of the dtic in the National Council of Provinces.

Just how revolutionary do you believe this strategy to be? Well, in an article published in June 2017 in the African Review of Economics and Finance, Maura Feddersen, Hugo Nel and Ferdi Botha wrote under the headline ‘Exports, capital formation and economic growth in South Africa’ that “export-oriented growth has been pursued gradually from 1972 and markedly since South Africa’s offer to the 1994 Uruguay Round”.

In the article’s conclusion, the authors wrote: “Significant potential benefits could arise from explicitly coordinating policies that link and simultaneously drive export expansion and investment in some sectors due to the anticipated positive feedback effects between the two. “Such policies could be used to capitalise on the virtuous cycle that exists between exports and fixed capital that, in turn, raises economic growth in South Africa. In other words, for higher economic growth to be viable in the long run, it is imperative that the link between exports and fixed investment is emphasised – as only through the positive relationship between exports and fixed investment will the positive influence on economic growth be maximised.”

Have you spotted glaring omissions in the dtic media statement? They are indeed ‘investment’ and ‘fixed investment’, referenced thrice in the preceding paragraph.

So, what is the Deputy Minister proposing if investment is not sought? “One of the dtic’s key focus areas under the new administration will be a renewed export drive to lower the risk of slow domestic growth while also identifying high growth opportunities.” Explaining how this will be done, the Deputy Minister wrote: “Through a dedicated focus on implementing measures to boost the competitiveness of local industries in global markets, streamlining export processes, lowering trade barriers, offering financial and technical assistance to exporters, and cultivating beneficial trade alliances with other nations.”

Are these ‘supply-side measures’, without mentioning that term? Supply-side measures – well, there is a blast from the past, albeit without investment. So, the onus is on businesses to find and make the investment, and for government to create an enabling environment, and to “identify high growth opportunities”?

As with all political ideologies, what the Deputy Minister is proposing tends to lack the ‘how’. As a toddler exploring the operation of the world through the excessive use of a singular word, ‘why’, let’s question the strategy with a repetitive ‘how’.

“Through a dedicated focus on implementing measures to boost the competitiveness of local industries in global markets.” How? “Streamlining export processes”. How? “Lowering trade barriers”. How? “Offering financial and technical assistance to exporters.” How? “Cultivating beneficial trade alliances with other nations”. How?

Now let’s add a variation by asking just ‘How long?’ How long is all this expected to take?

As for South Africa’s recent famed ‘trade surplus’, who is the most significant contributor? Could it be the other Southern African Customs Union member countries, collectively?