Economic Sectors

Question 1

What are the three economic sectors and the various roles?

Answer 1

1. Primary sector or: extraction of raw materials
2. Secondary sector: manufacturing process
3. Tertiary sector: resale of goods and services

Question 2

What are the types of natural resources in South Africa’s primary sector?

Answer 2

1) minerals, including coal, gold, diamonds, iron deposits, platinum, etc.
2) variety of fish, including snoek, sardines, hake.
3) fresh water
4) favorable climate and fertile soil, resulting in heavily sought out mealies, sugars, oranges, wheat, grapes, sunflowers, tobacco, etc.
5) plantations of oak and blue gum trees which are found in KZN and Mpumalanga.

Question 3

How can we preserve natural resources in the primary sector?

Answer 3

1) planting new trees
2) prohibiting the overgrazing of soil and land.
3) building of dams and promote and utilize a variety of other water conservation methods
4) to not pollute or waste water
5) use of biodegradable materials in production and packaging
6) recycle paper, glass and plastic
7) cost effective energy resources
8) issue permits and quotas when wanting to catch fish.

Question 4

Types of skills within the primary sector?

Answer 4

1) physical work required manual labor.
2) workers are needed to operate the machines that do the things people cannot (these workers need training)
3) leadership roles within a business— needs people to lead by planning and organizing the necessary resources

Question 5

Types of activities that take place in the secondary sector

Answer 5

Manufacturing of products
1) construction
2) manufacturing of food
3) car manufacturers
4) clothing manufacturing
5) furniture manufacturing
6) activities concerning engineering
7) chemical plants
8) manufacturing of electricity

Question 6

The preservation of resources in the secondary sector

Answer 6

— needs to aware of the impact the sector has on air, water and noise pollution
— sector’s existence depends to a large degree on the availability of certain natural resources
— responsible for protecting resources

Question 7

Types of skills that the secondary sector requires:

Answer 7

1) important source of job creation due to many citizens not receiving higher/any education. Employees then receive specific/specialized training in order to operate the machinery required to do their work
2) often a large degree of repetition (of the same task) in the sector, which can become quite monotonous and frustrating
3) there are however also many workers who have a good education that are employed in this sector.

Question 8

What type of activities take place in the tertiary sector?

Answer 8

— the sake of all goods and services, here includes all the goods and services businesses purchase from one another, as well as all the goods and services that we, consumers, buy to satisfy our needs and wants.

Question 9

Which sector contributes the most to South Africa’s economy, and the service component generates the most growth?

Answer 9

The tertiary sector

Question 10

What two actions take place in the tertiary sector?

Answer 10

1) Buy and sell products
2) Deliver services

Question 11

The preservation of natural resources in the tertiary sector.

Answer 11

The impact of the tertiary sector on a country’s resources is indirect as the sector revolves around trading with the use of knowledge, a sustainable resource that can only be increased and never depleted. People in the tertiary sector acquire new information/ideas to create opportunities for entrepreneurs to find creative solutions to reduce pollution, to create renewable resources and to sell these ideas to businesses in the primary and secondary sectors.

Question 12

Differentiate economic growth from economic development.

Answer 12

Eco growth: the country’s actual GDP growing from one year to the next.
Eco development: the average GDP improving and the majority of people in the country experience a higher standard of living.

Question 13

GDP vs Real GDP

Answer 13

GDP: the total amount of final products and services that are produced within the country’s borders, in a period of a year.
Real GDP: taking into account that inflation can affect the prices of goods and services and this leads to an artificial increase in the GDP

Question 14

What strategies can be followed when we ask the question: how should the three sectors be managed in order to increase the real GDP per capita?

Answer 14

1) Human Capital
2) Natural Resources
3) Capital Formation
4) Technology
5) Institutions

Question 15

The Private Sector

Answer 15

Consists of all businesses that are privately owned, regardless of whether the business is in the formal or informal sector.

Question 16

What are some forms of ownership in the private sector?

Answer 16

— sole proprietor
— partnership
— private company
— public company

Question 17

The formal sector

Answer 17

Consists of tax-paying businesses which the government is aware of. The output of these businesses is therefore included when the GDP is calculated

Question 18

The informal sector

Answer 18

Includes all the economic activities that are not included in the GDO. The informal sector is often referred to as the unrecorded portion of the economy

Question 19

Characteristics of the informal business sector

Answer 19

— economic activate excluded from the GDP
— many people cannot find jobs to they create their own using their entrepreneurial skills
— lack of education only contributes to people being unemployed
— activities include both legal and illegal

Question 20

Advantages/importance of the informal sector.

Answer 20

— people create work for themselves in order to survive
— maintaining their self confidence
— capital requirements are small
— prices are low due to competition
— some develop to such a degree, they form part of the formal sector and pay tax
— decrease unemployment rates

Question 21

Problems/disadvantages of the informal sector

Answer 21

— shortage of skilled entrepreneurs
— goods and services often of a low quality with no guarantees on the product
— illegal activities only encourage crime in the community

Question 22

Define a chop shop.

Answer 22

An illegal activity where items like stolen cars are re-designed (and made unrecognisable) and resold.

Question 23

Public Sector

Answer 23

The government’s involvement in the South African economy and its attempts to develop the economy with reference to, amongst others, inequalities of the past m.

Question 24

What does RDP stand for?

Answer 24

Reconstruction and Development Program.

Question 25

What is the aim of the RDP?

Answer 25

— create a democratic community
— apply a healthy macro m-economic policy to be about economic development
— uplift previous disadvantaged communities by providing them with basic needs

Question 26

List all the RDP successes after beginning in 1994 after the ANC implemented the program.

Answer 26

— better care for the aged, orphans and the disabled through social welfare
— free health care for children and pregnant women
— the provision of meals to roughly 3.5-5 million school going children.