The Mpumalanga provincial government on Tuesday launched seven new projects under the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC) flagship project.

The province would spend an initial R33-million by April to start these projects, which included the development of a number of industrial parks and a border post freight and logistics precinct.

MDC CEO Blessing Manale said that these projects would create about 45 000 permanent jobs, which would account for between 30% and 35% of the province’s unemployed.

Mpumalanga would spend over R500-million on these projects by 2012.

Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla officially launched the seven projects, which the MDC believed would bring greater benefits to the residents of the province.

Manale explained that the corridor had mostly brought benefits for Mozambique and the port of Maputo, while the corridor was mostly used as a freight and logistics corridor.

However, he noted that spatial development projects were needed in the area to ensure that capital did not leave the province and that more investments were made in the region.

The other projects included the establishment of a food and technology centre, an international conference centre, an English and Portuguese translation and interpretation language training centre and an integrated investment and customer care facility.

The language training centre specifically would focus on giving small to medium-sized enterprises the opportunity to train others in English and Portuguese.

Manale said he expected training to start in April.

Further, the customer care facility was expected to integrate traffic, border movement, port information and other services, as well as provide for a tourism information centre.

The MDC was looking at a number of other possible future projects.

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