| | Eastern Cape Development Program - Investment & Development Opportunities
Location: East London, Eastern Cape
Property Type: Development
ZAR Price on Application
Contact: SA Investment +27(0)21 790 9900 |
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The Eastern Cape is a combination of two vastly different worlds, represented by its impoverished former homeland areas and its modern, growing industries. The former Transkei and Ciskei homelands, created by apartheid, remain the poorest parts of the poorest province. At the same time, the province is seizing new opportunities as South Africa, the world’s third fastest growing exporter in 2001, competes in global markets. Opportunities continue to grow, boosted by the province’s two new Industrial Development Zones (IDZs).
The province needs a dual strategy for a dual economy. Development strategy has to both increase rural incomes and jobs in the former homelands, and build on the recent growth of manufacturing. Long-term education and skills development and wiping out infrastructure backlogs are critical components of the strategy to move forward.
In the former homelands, anti-poverty strategies are focusing on the root causes of underdevelopment, lack of jobs and poor services, while harnessing the enterprise and skill of rural households. One important initiative is the Transkei Rapid Impact Programme (TRIP), aimed at delivering high-impact projects to both meet immediate needs and create the conditions for long-term socio-economic transformation. It will focus on infrastructure, roads, agriculture and food production, agro-forestry, social infrastructure and services, and renewal of institutions.
Another initiative will be the growth of Community Public Private Partnerships (CPPPs) in rural areas. CPPPs provide a legal structure for successful natural resource-based enterprises to work within the communal land tenure system.
The other side of this dual strategy is to ensure that conditions are favourable for continued manufacturing growth. It is also vital to extend this growth throughout the province, through supply links to labour-intensive agro-processing industries built on the rich natural resource base of the province. Better road, air, rail and telecommunication links and investment in the IDZs are key strategies to continue to build business growth and competitiveness. Another priority is foreign and local enterprise promotion targeted at higher-value production for export, at key gaps in supply and at natural resource processing.
The Provincial Government of the Eastern Cape and its social partners are currently formulating a Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP), in line with the national policy framework for socio-economic planning at provincial level. |
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