JASON Lord (21), son of Michael and Lesley Lord from Hofmeyr, and currently a post graduate student doing his B.Com. Honours in Economics at Stellenbosch University, recently received an invitation to apply to attend a winter school together with 99 other students who were chosen from the applicants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had to enter by sending a short motivation accompanied by his academic results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jason was chosen and the group of 100 students from all over the country stayed at a hotel in Pretoria Central. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jason reports that from July 9-13 he had the privilege of attending a public economics winter school presented by GTAC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
GTAC is an agency of the South African Treasury and was formally established in March 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
GTAC provides advisory and technical research, as well as capacity building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their vision is to serve as a creative centre of excellence for learning and advisory support in public policy and fiscal and financial analysis and management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One hundred postgraduate economics students were selected from various South African universities to take part, along with a few practising economists and public servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winter school was held at the Reserve Bank in Pretoria, where the overall focus for the week\u2019s conversations was on inclusive growth within our country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within this theme, the week was split into three themes which included discussions on tax policy, urban development and infrastructure investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tax policy looked at how tax mechanisms are implemented to collect revenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Urban development looked at how government can implement policy to integrate our urban areas to enable a society which can be at an economic advantage through positive integration, while infrastructure investment focused on how to make our spending on infrastructure more efficient and improve the functioning of South Africa\u2019s state-owned entities (SOEs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The students attended presentations by influential director-generals from National Treasury and role-players in the South African public economics sphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, distinguished academics in their field shared their knowledge and insights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Board members from the SOEs were also invited to share their strategies for a positive turn around at their respective companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participants engaged in constructive debates and tough questions were put to the presenters on how to improve the policy and spending inefficiencies that are experienced within the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jason states that it was an enormous privilege to have been part of the winter school programme and the knowledge shared and gained was very beneficial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exposure to the inner workings of government was enlightening and the overall feeling that he took away from the week was that there are many public servants in government who work tirelessly at achieving the best outcomes for the country and that such persistence and perseverance is what is needed in the future to overcome the negative light which is often portrayed of the government system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the National Treasury was a very competent and important arm in government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jason is planning on doing his M.Com in Economics next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he would definitely consider taking up a job in the National Treasury one day, should he be afforded the opportunity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JASON Lord (21), son of Michael and Lesley Lord from Hofmeyr, and currently a post graduate student doing his B.Com. Honours in Economics at Stellenbosch University, recently received an invitation to apply to attend a winter school together with 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