The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism will host a public hearing session on the designation of the Atlantis Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for Green Technologies on Wednesday next week.
The session will take place in Protea Park, Atlantis, in the Western Cape, enabling interested parties to submit comments in support of, or in opposition to, the designation. This comes after Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies published his intention to designate the Atlantis SEZ in September.
The proposed Atlantis SEZ has already demonstrated its strong economic potential and attractiveness to investors as it has successfully managed to secure investors even before its designation, a Tuesday media statement by the DTI and the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism noted.
Five investors in Atlantis are already operational, with a total investment of about R680-million. Further, there are additional investment commitments worth about R1.8-billion already secured for the short to medium term.
“The development of the Atlantis GreenTech SEZ has the potential to attract more investors and to contribute significantly to changing the lives of members of the communities of Atlantis and the neighbouring areas by creating employment opportunities,” said Davies.
The public hearing session will afford community members and other interested parties an opportunity to express their views on the designation of the SEZ and what they think its impact would be.
“[T]he SEZ will deliver an economic boost to Atlantis, in particular, and the Western Cape in general. South Africa is the world’s fastest-growing green economy and, in partnership with GreenCape, we are establishing the province as the hub of this growth,” said Western Cape Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde.
“The SEZ is an excellent example of the power of partnerships between all spheres of government. The declaration of Atlantis as an SEZ is a declaration to the people of Atlantis and surrounding areas that government is serious about economic growth, social development and job creation in the area,” he added.