Photo by: Duane Daws
Over 26 companies active in the logistics, support services, oil and gas contracting and drilling, marine and rig building, fabrication and repair and wells specialist industries have shown interest in relocating their businesses to the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone (SBIDZ), while eight of these firms were already developing and finalising agreements with the zone operator, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies has said.
Responding in writing to a Parliamentary question by Democratic Alliance MP Kobus Marais, Davies outlined that there were no minimum requirements under the IDZ programme – or the overarching Manufacturing Development Act – for companies or factories wishing to relocate to an IDZ licensed by the Department of Trade and Industry.
“The decision to accept an investor lies with the operating company, under the overall governance of its board of directors,” he commented.
Davies added that the Saldanha Bay IDZ Licencing Company had been awarded an operator permit to develop and manage the zone and was in the process of establishing itself as, or converting itself into, a separate Provincial Business Public Entity.
The SBIDZ, which was still in the early stages of development in terms of the required physical infrastructure, boasted the deepest natural port in the southern hemisphere and was a designated oil and gas, marine repair engineering and logistics services complex.