President Cyril Ramaphosa has named Fiona Tregenna, the DST/NRF South African Research Chair (SARChI Chair) in Industrial Development at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), to serve on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). The PEAC is composed of leading economists from South Africa and abroad.
During his earlier State of the Nation Address, the President pronounced on the establishment of a PEAC to help South Africa develop an economic agenda in pursuit of inclusive growth, job creation and transformation.
The PEAC will be expected to engage and provide advice on:
- The pillars of a macro-economic strategy that should frame economic and industrial decisions that government should pursue in the medium to long term, consistent with the electoral mandate of the current administration.
- Creative ways of building trust between government and social partners in a manner that responds to South Africa’s triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
- Global developments that affect South Africa’s growth prospects and critical steps required to achieve policy coherence and to build confidence across society, social partners and investors.
As the advisory body, the PEAC will facilitate government’s access to economic intelligence and intellectual capital in macro- and micro-economic policy making, to improve the quality of policy design and implementation. The members, who will volunteer their time, are appointed to serve a three-year term. The Council will be supported by a Secretariat drawn from National Treasury and the Presidency.
