Analysis of export and employment opportunities for the South African manufacturing industry

Abstract

The South African government recognises the importance of promoting manufactured exports as a means of ensuring sustainable economic growth and job creation. However, export promotion organisations have limited resources at their disposal and promoting all manufactured exports is not possible. Using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model and Decision Support Model (DSM), this paper identifies those manufacturing sectors and markets that offer export, labour absorption and ultimately economic development potential for South Africa. The paper thus makes a valuable contribution to the literature while also offering useful insights to export promotion organisations tasked with developing sector-specific assistance programmes.