A group of 20 government employees – comprising Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) officials involved in the planning, development, management and operations of special economic zones (SEZs) in South Africa – will depart for Tianjin, China on Friday to participate in a month-long capacity-building programme on SEZs.
 
This is part of a five-year agreement between South Africa and China, which aims to train up to thirty government officials a year.

Project executives and sector specialists attended the first two instalments of the training programme after the agreement was signed in 2014. However, for the current financial year, project officers from various SEZs and industrial development zones (IDZs) were afforded the opportunity to receive training.
 
According to Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies, the purpose of the training programme was to equip policy-makers, development practitioners and operators on the planning, development, management and operations of SEZs.
 
“The programme is important to ensure that all stakeholders have the technical know-how required for the successful development of the SEZs in South Africa. One of the major challenges that government has identified in relation to the development of the SEZs, as part of the implementation of our SEZ programme, is the capacity constraint across the three tiers of government,” said Davies.
 
He noted that an initial assessment of the capacity of provinces and municipalities suggested that they would require significant support from the DTI for the objectives of the SEZ programme to be achieved throughout the country.

With this in mind, the department designed and implemented the capacity-building programme to create a pool of skilled and trained officials who would make the implementation of the SEZ programme a success.

“Despite the strong and mutually beneficial political and economic relations that we have with China, the country is regarded as one of the best in the world when it comes to the implementation of the SEZs model. Our officials will be greatly empowered by being exposed to the zones in China and how they are managed,” stressed Davies.
 
The training would cover a range of topics including planning, infrastructure development, investment propositions development, marketing tools and channels, stakeholder management including international alliances, and public–private partnership models.

It would also teach attendees to deal with potential investors and to finance and manage the operations of an SEZ.

“The SEZ programme has been introduced to contribute to accelerating industrialisation as a necessary step to address many of the country’s socioeconomic challenges, such as unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment,” concluded Davies.