The Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel's ideas of funding his macro-economic strategic plan through accessing wealth in retirement funds were "refreshing," the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) said on Tuesday.

The minister's comments had come "from the high echelons of power in the midst of massive challenges of unemployment, service delivery backlogs, underdevelopment and poverty that are engulfing the vast majority of the workers and the poor", Numsa said in a statement.

The union's comments followed the announcement by Patel last week that he was exploring ways of investing some of the R1.5-trillion of public and private retirement funds in development projects, including the possibility of issuing a development bond.

The union said it looked forward to talks that would include its colleagues from UASA and other trade unions, "in the light of billions of workers' monies that were lost in the recent global financial crisis".

Numsa called on Patel to initiate a structured public engagement with all relevant parties, particularly trade union-appointed and employer-appointed trustees, for consensus and implementation.

"As Numsa we are interested in such a discussion informed by the ANC's election manifesto, numerous alliance summit discussions as well as long-standing Numsa and Cosatu (Congress of SA Trade Unions) resolutions."

The union said it believed retirement funds could play a key role in "reversing the colonial character of our economy".