Building a culture of Government-Business Collaboration

Many of us are aware of the more high-profile forums where Government and Business (and Labour and Community sectors as well) talk together about what needs to be done to grow the economy, to create jobs, to support smme development, etc. In our province, we have structures such as the KZN Growth Coalition, as well as the KZN Economic Council, where such talks take place.  Many municipalities also have similar forums, such as a Local Economic Development Forum. But most often what emerges from these talks is a public “statement” that repeats the need for partnerships, and sometimes says what the stakeholders think needs to be done. It is less often that we see the partnerships move from talk to collaborative action.  There are many reasons for this, which cannot be discussed in any detail here, but it  s a growing reality that unless we in the private and the public sectors learn to actively develop and implement economic growth and development plans â€˜together’, we face a much more difficult task of achieving sustainable job-creating economic growth.

Black Balance has been closely involved in the processes of the formulation of KZN’s Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP), and likewise in the development of a number of District Growth and Development Plans, which set out focus areas and targets for the five-year period ahead. From this vantage point of working with many stakeholders in the planning processes, we have seen little if any private sector involvement in the implementation processes of these plans. As a result, the public sector officials naturally focus on the implementation of those areas of the plans that are more core to Government’s regulatory or basic service delivery roles, and give less energy to other areas, in particular the economic development parts of the plans.  Consequently, the economic targets in the plans quickly become unachievable, as little momentum is built around the actions needed to stimulate local economic growth. Thus more needs to be considered and done to attract private sector leadership into the implementation processes of the provincial and local development plans. There is no quick-fix to this challenge. Yes, having institutional structures or formal forums can be helpful, but to be sustainable actionoriented partnerships require commitment to building a new ‘culture’ of collaboration between the people who lead the public and private sectors. This means that the private sector, whose main focus is on internal profitability, needs to buy into the notion that sustainable profitability is only possible when Government (and Labour and Communities) are pulling in the same direction, and when plans are being implemented with effectiveness and efficiency.

The private sector must increasingly realise that achieving ‘effectiveness and efficiency’ in implementing plans, especially those that relate to growing the economy, such as economic infrastructure development, needs the skills and experience of private sector leaders and managers.  The involvement of the private sector means making an investment to achieve a longerterm goal of sustainable growth. Most often, this investment is time.  Private sector leaders and managers need to commit the time needed to participate in the project planning, monitoring and guiding in order to make the development plans realisable. In these tough economic times, making such commitments of time to non-core business is not easy.  But it is necessary, if the economic and business environment is to become more supportive of growth.  Simultaneously, Government needs to be guided in how to make the development plan implementation processes and structures more ‘friendly’ to private sector participation. There are many ways to do this, such as simply setting â€˜project team’ meetings at times that are more convenient for business people to participate.  In summary, more honest and open discussion is needed between the public and private sector leaders at provincial and local levels about how to innovatively raise the level of involvement of business people in development project planning and implementation. Everyone is in agreement that we must transition from talks and plans, to action and implementation to achieve meaningful results.  But results in terms of economic growth and transformation mean a deeper partnership between the public and private sectors.  

Let’s get this discussion going at all levels, and bring real meaning to partnership.

Black Balance Projects
info@blackbalance.co.za
www.blackbalance.co.za