Eastern Cape ‘sky economy’ will support NDP, Ipap visions

14th August 2015

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

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The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) says its project to develop a proposed sky economy – a R3.67-billion cargo airport and aerospace and advanced manufacturing industrial cluster at the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), in the Eastern Cape – aligns with the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap).

CDC metals, aeronautical and advance manu- facturing business development manager Mogamad Sadick Davids tells Engineering News that the project is fully driven by the requirements of the NDP and Ipap, in which small, medium-sized and microenterprise incubation and support are defined, as well as the need for support for national flagship projects.

The CDC last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Aerospace Centre (NAC), which allows the CDC access to the NAC’s national and international academic and research development networks, as well as local and international partners to support the development of an aerospace cluster.

The cluster will be located on 2 086 ha of land in Zone 14 of the Coega IDZ.

Davids says the project forms part of the greater Coega development, which encompasses advanced manufacturing, mariculture, aquaculture, composite boat building, automotive, chemicals and renewable energy.

“The project is also geographically ideally suited as a hub, branching into the rest of the province, which can support and draw in other industries such as agriprocessing, the mohair industry and the renewables sector. {This is an ideal multimodal corridor for road, sea, rail and air,” he explains.

The potential also exists for the hub to link directly with international centres for the direct transport of time-sensitive cargo.

The construction timeline of the cargo airport is subject to the outcome of detailed studies currently being prepared.

Development on the aerospace and advanced manufacturing industrial cluster is expected to begin in 2017 and includes an initial injection from government of R520-million, with an expected input of R1.9-billion from the private sector.

The development is expected to take three years to construct and could return R2.55-million in gross domestic product a year for the South African economy.

Infrastructure development through foreign and domestic investment is projected at R257.7-million in the first year and R354.6-million in the second.

The CDC projects that in year three and four the investments will exceed R1-billion a year.

“This project is an important next step to advance the realisation of job creation and economic growth through the sky economy. We believe that 10 080 construction jobs can be created, operational jobs will offer 8 600 opportunities and indirect jobs will [be in the order of] 13 500,” Davids says.

The cluster will consist of maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities that take into account the region, province and subcontinent – the Southern African Development Community at the very least – as well as worldwide partners.

It will also contain heavy and light industrial manufacturing facilities for the aerospace industry, particularly aerostructural manufacturing for domestic and international partners, with an emphasis on supporting existing South African aerospace manufacturing.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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