Speaking notes of Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies at the press briefing on the Special Economic Zones Bill
16 Jan 2012
Director-General, Mr Lionel October
Deputy-Director General, Mr Tumelo Chipfupa
Members of the media,
Government officials, and
Ladies and gentlemen
We invited you here today to brief you on the gazetting of the Special Economic Zones Bill for public comment. The dti initiated the Industrial Development Zones Programme in 2000, with a view to support industrial development in the host regions with a special focus on export oriented value added products. A key requirement for designating an IDZ was proximity to either an international sea or airport. Consequently, 4 IDZs were designated in Coega in Port Elizabeth, East London, Richards Bay and the OR Tambo International Airport. All are operational except the OR Tambo International Airport IDZ.
The achievements of the IDZ Programme include a total of 40 investors attracted into the IDZs with more than R11.8 billion investments generated and more than 33 000 jobs (both construction and direct) created. Despite these achievements, it was felt that more could have been achieved. A review of the IDZ Programme was then initiated, and this identified some challenges that needed to be addressed in order to improve the performance of the IDZ Programme.
The challenges identified included the following: a design structure that favoured a few regions, support that focused narrowly on the provision of infrastructure, planning done on an ad-hoc basis, inadequate coordination among key government agencies and stakeholders, financing arrangements that made it impossible to do long term planning, and inadequate targeting of investments. The Special Economic Zones Policy and Bill were motivated by the need to urgently address the above challenges within the broader framework of accelerating industrial development, economic growth and job creation.