KZN one-stop shop to boost trade, cut costs
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is set to open the KwaZulu-Natal InvestSA one-stop shop at Kingsmead Office Park on Saturday.
The shop is aimed at making it easier to do business in the province.
This came about since a recent World Bank report on the ease of doing business showed South Africa had slipped in the rankings from 32 in 2008 to 82 out of 190 countries this year.
It has been set up to co-ordinate special economic zones, provincial investment agencies, local authorities and the relevant government departments involved in regulatory, registration, permits and licensing so that an investor need make only one stop to achieve regulatory compliance.
This is part of the government’s efforts to address issues raised by the World Bank.
It will improve the business environment by reducing the bureaucratic red tape, lower the cost of doing business and improve the ease of doing business to underpin a sustainable and competitive economy.
As the province with the greatest exposure to cross-border trade, KZN has a substantial interest in making this ac- tivity as easy as possible.
The province’s ports are dominant, with Richards Bay responsible for the majority of bulk exports and Durban responsible for most of the country’s bulk and container imports.
The World Bank Doing Business records the time and cost associated with the supply chain process of exporting and importing goods.
It measures the time and cost (excluding tariffs) associated with three sets of procedures.
These are documentary compliance (red tape), border compliance (delays at border posts) and domestic transport cost (cost from manufacturing hub to port).
Apart from cutting red tape, the government will also promote physical infrastructure and operational efficiencies at state-owned enterprises such as Transnet, a vital link in the logistics chain.
The recent upgrade and maintenance of the coal link between Richards Bay and the Mpumalanga coal fields, for instance, cut the turnaround time of a coal train by 10%.
Travel time
It will boost coal exports from the province by an equivalent amount.
In addition, the new Maputo-Catembe Bridge project, which is set to be completed next month, will boost trade between KZN and Mozambique as it will cut the travel time between Durban and Maputo by at least four hours.
It means that several products which are currently sourced from Gauteng will now instead be sourced from this province.