Keith Lockwood | Economic Speaker | Johannesburg | Gauteng

Keith Lockwood is an economic speaker from Johannesburg and completed a Bachelor of Commerce Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1986, majoring in Economics and Business Information Systems.

He was awarded the B Com Honours Degree in Economics (through part-time studies) in 1989, which entailed the advanced courses in Macro- and Micro- economics, Development Economics, and the Development of Economic Thought.

His Honours Degree dissertation was titled “Investment – The Key to Development”.

Keith has spent more than a decade as a senior economist at both the SA Chamber of Business and the erstwhile SA Federated Chamber of Industries.

He is currently a part-time lecturer in the Economics Department of Rand Afrikaans University and at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Since commencing work as an economic consultant Keith has participated in research and advisory projects across a number of different sectors and policy fields, ranging from financial services, construction, infrastructure, and local economic development to skills development, regional integration, tax policy and industrial policy.

In many cases this has necessitated an integration of detailed quantitative analysis (often of data generated through surveys that were unique and integral to the studies concerned) with qualitative perspectives arising from interactions with business people, academics and policy-makers.

Some of the more significant of these studies include: a detailed study of foreign direct investment in South Africa for the Presidency; evaluation of the pricing of, and access to, different types of consumer credit products in South Africa for the National Credit Regulator;

Keith Lockwood

Assessment of the impact of Gauteng’s Blue IQ initiative on the structure and performance of the Gauteng economy; the development of policy proposals

Together with PWC – for the VAT treatment of merit goods on behalf of National Treasury;

An assessment of the sensitivity of the Expanded Public Works Programme to changes in labour standards;

The development of regional economic development plans for development regions within the Johannesburg Metro; and the identification of business
opportunities in Africa for Blue IQ.

Keith Lockwood also authored the “Infrastructure Expenditure Tracker” for the Support Programme for Accelerated Infrastructure Development (SPAID) and recently developed a National Investment Promotion Strategy for Trade and Investment South Africa.

In 2010, was appointed to a five-person expert review panel to assess the sector skills plans of SETAs,

More recently was a member of a task team established by the Human Resources Development Council to review the skills system and make recommendations for its reform.

In response to the rapid increase in rhino poaching, he developed a model of the market for rhino horn to assist in developing appropriate policy choices,

He has been appointed to serve on a panel of experts to advise the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs in the lead up to the next CITES Congress of the Parties in 2016.

In addition to his consulting work, Keith Lockwood is also an adjunct faculty member of the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) – ranked in the top 40 for corporate education globally by the Financial Times and regularly makes presentations to some of South Africa’s leading corporations.

Economic and business consultancy work has included:

• The Blue IQ Initiative of the Gauteng Provincial Government, specialising in spatial development initiatives within the province.
• An international comparative study on the competitiveness of the South African manufacturing sector (commissioned by the SA Chamber of Business).
• A multi-faceted study on investment trends in South Africa) commissioned by the Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services Unit in the Office of the President.
• Development of a positioning strategy for Export South Africa – an organisation comprising 15 of South Africa’s largest exporters.
• A study of the investment climate in South Africa that formed part of a wider study into the economies of the Southern African Development Community [SADC], and the potential for economic integration in the region.