Cabinet has approved the decision by Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies to designate the Atlantis Special Economic Zone (SEZ), in Atlantis industrial area, outside Cape Town.

The designation of the Atlantis SEZ follows that of the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone and is intended to promote industrial development along the West Coast Corridor.

This was after the SEZ Advisory Board was satisfied with the rationale and scale of economic opportunities in the region, and recommended that the Minister designate the proposed area and grant an SEZ Licence to the Western Cape Department of Economic Opportunities.

The SEZ Advisory Board’s recommendations were followed up by extensive public consultation processes with community members, business associations and multistakeholder interest groups, which all supported the designation of Atlantis SEZ.

Cabinet approved the designation of the Atlantis Green-Technology SEZ on condition that priority be given to the community of Atlantis in terms of jobs and small, medium-sized and microenterprise empowerment, and that there must be a labour and community representative on the board of the SEZ management entity established to develop and manage the zone.
 
The Atlantis SEZ is intended for the manufacturing of “green technology components and services”, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) components; wind turbine blades; wind turbine towers; solar water heaters; basic components; smart meters; rooftop PV; biomass components; waste-to-energy components; batteries and other PV storage components.
 
“The designated Atlantis SEZ has significantly attracted investments of over R680-million in the form of green-tech industrial component manufacturers. This investment has added about 500 direct jobs in the Western Cape’s economy. This is in line with the Industrial Policy Action Plan, which has identified SEZs as strategic interventions designed to accelerate economic development through greater investment, export volumes and job creation,” said Davies.