Government's Special Economic Zones (SEZ) programme currently had 115 investors with a private investment value of over R16.8 billion, department of trade and industry (DTI) minister Dr Rob Davies said on Wednesday.
Davies made the statement at Durban's Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC) earlier in the day. He was speaking at the first National Special Economic Zones Investment Conference hosted by the DTI and the KwaZulu-Natal department of economic development, tourism and environmental affairs (EDTEA).
The companies utilising the SEZs had created 15 716 direct jobs, said Davies.
“Since the introduction of the new SEZ legislation in 2014, the number of designated zones has increased, the investor confidence has improved, the number of operational investments has increased and continue to increase, the support from various sectors of the society, in particular, all spheres of government, State-Owned Entities (SOEs), the business community and labour has also improved considerably."
The Dube TradePort SEZ had attracted 35 operational investors with investment value of R1.5 billion and had created a total of 3 246 direct jobs, said Davies. In the 2017/18 financial year, 429 new direct jobs and 974 construction jobs were created. As of March 18, 184 new direct jobs and a total of 2020 construction jobs had been created.
“In 2012, the Coega Special Economic Zone had 19 investors with a total private sector investment value of R1.13 billion, creating 3 778 jobs. As at April 2019, the Coega SEZ has grown to 43 operational investors worth over R9.93 billion worth of private investments. As a result, it has doubled its direct employment creation to 8210 jobs and 19402 including construction jobs since inception,” said Davies.
Coega SEZ had become a best practice model for all SEZs in South Africa and across the continent. It remained the biggest SEZ in terms of number and value of investments on the African continent.
Coega was the subject of a global case study led by the World Bank which was looking at best practice examples of SEZ development across the globe, said Davies, which indicated that the SEZ programme was on the right path.
To improve and upscale the impact of the SEZ programme, Davies said it was critical to look at innovative ways of supporting the SEZs to achieve more and double investments as per president Cyril Ramaphosa’s mission to attract more investments to the zones.
“To date, a total of 10 SEZs have been designated. In 2018, the Atlantis SEZ in the Western Cape, a green-tech hub, as well as Nkomazi SEZ in Mpumalanga, agro-processing and logistic hub, were the latest designations under the programme. In addition, the designation of Bojanala SEZ in North West is at the advanced stage. Very soon I will be publishing the application for the designation of the proposed zone in the government gazette to afford the public an opportunity to submit written comments on the proposed development,” said Davies.
Over 500 delegates from national, provincial and local government, state-owned entities, SEZs, industry associations, industry experts and academics, international Investment communities and local businesses are attending the conference, which ends on Thursday.