New research fund to replace JGF

The Executive Council meeting of August 29 agreed to the establishment of the Fund for Research into Industrial Development, Growth and Equity (Fridge), which will replace the Japanese Grant Fund (JGF). The JGF will be wound up at the end of this year, but Fridge will continue to provide funds for research until 2001.

As a result of the agreement on the establishment of Fridge, several million rand will be made available for research aimed at addressing workplace change, efficiency and equity in a changing international economic environment.

The JGF first operated under the umbrella of the National Economic Forum, Nedlac's predecessor, since shortly after the April 1994 election. The funds were accessed on behalf of South Africa by World Bank staff in the USA, and were made available for the preparation of an industrial competitiveness and investment project in post-apartheid South Africa.

The funds in the JFG were distributed by a steering committee between two sets of initiatives: firstly, to develop strategies to strengthen competitive advantage within individual subsectors and, secondly, cross-cutting initiatives to develop implementable programmes for strengthening competitiveness that cut across individual subsectors.

While the approximately R8 million in the JGF came from the Japanese government, the funds in Fridge will come from the Department of Trade and Industry's supply-side measures budget. It is estimated that approximately R15 million will be allocated in the 1997-98 budget year.

Fridge will be established by the Department of Trade and Industry and managed by the Industrial Development Corporation. Nedlac's Trade and Industry Chamber will nominate a management committee for the fund.

The JGF has completed a number of studies, but further investigations are needed into additional cluster studies as well as studies into an environmental strategy for South Africa and the country's standards and conformance infrastructure. Fridge will conduct these studies.

The JGF still has to complete three remaining studies by the end of the year, namely, the plastics, petrochemicals and synthetic-fibres cluster study, the role of government in the promotion of technology and bench-marking of international best practice on labour-intensive industries.