Pretoria - Coega has made investment history by becoming the first South African Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) to sign 10 clients, with an investment value of just over R1.8 billion, in the 2013/14 financial year.
The company broke through the psychologically significant double digit barrier for new investments, it reported on Thursday, as audited figures on the organisation’s performance (for the financial year which ended in March) trickle through.
Coega has clinched investors across diverse sectors, including the manufacturing, logistics, chemicals, renewable energy and automotive industries.
Christopher Mashigo, the Business Development Executive Manager at Coega Development Corporation (CDC), said the IDZ’s ascent over the past three years has been “beyond remarkable”, given the current investment climate.
The ten investors, which equate to an investment total of R1.841 billion, include:
- SAMRT (SA) (automotive): R400 million
- Qtech Moulding (automotive): R23 million
- Digistics SA (logistics): R20 million
- ID Logistics (logistics): R35 million
- Afrox SA (chemicals): R300 million
- No. 1 Corporation (agro-processing): R40 million
- ITPASA (manufacturing): R30 million
- Ulba Tantalum Africa (chemicals): R200 million
- Poweway/Sungrow JV - Inverters (renewable energy): R127 million
- Powerway/JA Solar JV (renewable energy): R666.6 million
ITPASA and Powerway/JA Solar JV are already operational in the IDZ.
“About 60% of these investments will be at some point of commencing or commissioning within this calendar year. This means we are establishing a trend in the IDZ that new investors signed in one year and on the ground in the next, as is case with some new IDZ investors such as DCD Wind Towers, Famous Brands and Air Products,” Mashigo said.
He said Coega IDZ was becoming a springboard into the retail sector, both locally and globally.
The 10 new investors will create in excess of 900 jobs in the future, while 16 444 jobs were created in the last year. – SAnews.gov.za
