INVESTMENT PROMOTION
Investment into province continues
In the past five years the Eastern Cape has experienced sizeable local and international investment. It is testament that the Eastern Cape in South Africa is continues to be investment destination of choice for small, medium and large enterprise - locally and internationally.
ECDC has, directly or indirectly, been involved in assisting investors and business people to harness the potential in the Eastern Cape and grow successful commerce and industry in our region.
At your service
ECDC’s investment promotion programme offers a quality service which focuses on:
- identifying and packaging investment and business opportunities in the Eastern Cape
- identifying opportunities for joint ventures with local partners
- providing access to local business service networks
- assisting investors to access provincial and national investment incentive schemes
- advice on, and assistance with, location decisions
- providing a professional and relevant after-care service to all investors.
By doing this, ECDC helps investors leverage excellent returns on their investment.
Focusing on provincial growth sectors
ECDC focuses on eight specific integrated growth sectors which are all aligned to the provincial government's industrial development strategy and provincial growth and development strategy.
These are:
- Agriculture - including investment in farming, agro-processing, forestry and bi-product beneficiation
- Automotive component manufacture in support of the provincial automotive industry
- Renewable energy - generation and renewable energy product manufacture
- General manufacturing - including metals and engineering, plastics, chemicals and electronic manufacture
- Tourism - including greenfield and brownfield investments in tourism operations
- Aquaculture and fisheries - including fish farming, caged fish farming and freshwater fish growth
- Business Process Outsourcing and Offshoring (BPO&O) - including ICT, electronic software and associated sectors
- Film - including the development and growth of the film and media industry in the province.
Competitive and comparative advantages
The competitive and comparative advantage of investing in the Eastern Cape lies in:
- Eastern Cape university graduates are in demand around the country and this is indicative of the quality education they receive in areas including management and commerce, engineering, law, science, accounting and finances, information technology, the arts, medicine and applied research
- Through an integrated database system developed and maintained by the provinces two industrial development zones (Coega and theEast London IDZs), potential investors have ready access to skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour resources.
- At present these databases are primarily focused on the call-centre and construction industry but plans are in place to expand the data to include provincial growth sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and tourism (amongst others).
- Two purpose-build industrial development zones (IDZs)
The East London (www.elidz.co.za) and Coega (www.coega.co.za) industrial development zones are strategically situated on major transport and shipping routes, and provide purpose-built infrastructure for investors wishing to produce and manufacture for the South African Development Community (SADC) and world markets.
The Eastern Cape Provincial Government, through its Provincial Industrial Development Strategy (PIDS) and its Provincial Development Plan (PDP), are committed to economic diversification and have provided significant inputs and opportunities for local, national and international business to invest in the different sectors of the provincial economy
Set-up costs for new business in the Eastern Cape are extremely competitive in terms of production resources, land and rental prices, construction costs and overall input factor costs.
Given the fact that the Eastern Cape has three ports (Port Elizabeth, East London & Nqgura and three airports (Port Elizabeth , East London& Mthatha), easy access to domestic, SADC and global markets is guaranteed.
The urban and rural areas of the Eastern Cape boast some of the best quality of living standards in South Africa.
- Education, recreation, healthcare facilities and overall cost-of-living are affordable and of a high quality - they compare favourably with the best in the world
Investment incentives
Local, district, provincial and national government have a range of investment and business incentives available for start-up, expansion and new operations.
These incentives range from manufacturing rebates to preferential production factor costs depending on the size and type of investment or proposed business operation
Full details of applicable incentives can be discussed with the investment promotion sector specialist responsible for sector investment at ECDC.
CONTACT US:
Sindiswa Mkokeli
Telephone+27 (0) 43 704 5606
Email invest@ecdc.co.za
Source: http://www.ecdc.co.za/