Having spent more than R5 billion on the Industrial Development Zones (IDZ) programmes since their inception in 2000, the Department of Trade and Industry is hoping that the draft Special Economic Zones Bill will help improve the performance of the current IDZs.
The dti’s Chief Director of Infrastructure Support, Kaya Ngqaka, said at a special SEZs hearing in Mafikeng that this was one of the key objectives of the bill which Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, gazetted for public comment last month.
“The IDZs have created more than 33 000 jobs including construction jobs. Therefore, the draft bill will not in any way make the current IDZs redundant or obsolete as government has invested so much in them. They will be part of the new special economic zones that are going to be established as a result of the new legislation. In fact, the purpose of the bill is to broaden the scope and composition of dedicated industrial areas and to support industrial decentralisation,” said Ngqaka.
The dti’s Chief Director of Regional and Spatial Economic Development, Alfred Tau, said South Africa's acceptance to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) dictated that the country had to move with the times and broaden the scope of IDZs into the SEZs.
"This meant that the criterion that an area was required to be close to the sea in order to be designated as an IDZ should fall away. We want to strengthen our industrial capabilities globally. Government wants to move away from traditional industrial centres like Gauteng and Durban and have industries in the whole of the country. To this end, we are working with provinces to identify new zones that can be set up. Once this process has been concluded at least two SEZs will be established in each of the country's provinces,” he said.
