ArcelorMittal South Africa 2007 Annual Report Page 18 Chairman and Chief Executive's report continued Broad-Based Black Economic empowerment ArcelorMittal South Africa is committed to bring about meaningful social and economic transformation by the application of the DTI’s Codes of Good Practice and associated Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecard. The implementation of broad-based BEE across all aspects of the business is central to the achievement of meaningful change and forms an integral part of our business strategy. To this end, the company established a transformation policy during the year under review. A Transformation Committee has been tasked with ensuring the achievement of goals laid out in this policy relating to all seven of the new codes. This committee is chaired by Khotso Mokhele, Chairman of the board of ArcelorMittal South Africa. Significant progress has already been made, particularly with regard to preferential procurement and enterprise development. During the year, we began work on building a B-BBEE database of suppliers and held the first B-BBEE vendor day to provide a networking platform for B-BBEE suppliers and company procurement officers. Our commitment to the establishment of black-owned downstream steel enterprises is evident in the R250 million downstream development fund established to assist qualifying small enterprises. For the period under review black representation on the board is healthy, being made up as follows, 26,6% non-executive, 16,7% executive directors and 57,1% independent representation. At top and senior management level, 22% of individuals employed come from historically disadvantaged groups, with 39% at middle management level, 33% at first line management level and 45% at skilled and technical levels. Of the candidates who have completed training in the company’s various bursar and learnership programmes, 82% are from historically disadvantaged backgrounds (calculated in terms of the DTI’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (Interpretive Guide June 2007 – Code 200)). See our Sustainability Report for more information on B-BBEE. Managing our human capital The ability to attract and retain talented, skilled people is central to the ongoing success of the company. In a climate of national and industry-wide skills shortages, ArcelorMittal South Africa places particular emphasis on human capital management. During the year under review the company invested in bursaries, in-house training programmes, apprenticeships and graduate development initiatives to secure a continuous supply of critical skills in both the immediate and long-term future. A further 100 learners started apprenticeships at the company’s MERSETA-accredited training centre and all of the 13 graduates-in-training recruited for the first intake in 2006 successfully completed year one of their two-year internship. Recognising that skills development needs to be both internally- and externally focused, ArcelorMittal South Africa also embarked on a new continuous academic development initiative for employees, with 69 staff members embarking on various ArcelorMittal South Africa University Programmes. The Group’s Knowledge Management Programme (KMP) saw global participation in weekly networking forums on marketing and operational priorities and facilitates knowledge-sharing of best practices across all the Group companies. The year under review also saw a renewed focus on increasing the diversity of people in our organisation. Following the release of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Codes of Good Practice in February 2007, the company completed a full employment equity (EE) audit and reorganised representative EE forums to ensure compliance with statutory requirements. EE targets were set against the B-BBEE scorecard, the achievement of which will be driven by task teams comprising senior line managers and representatives from the newly-formed Transformation Committee. Read more about the company’s human capital management in the sustainability report.