Industrial zone to woo investors

Ramaphosa said Atlantis project will create jobs

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cavalcade on Thursday officially rolled into the industrial area of Atlantis outside Cape Town to launch the latest effort to open factories in SA.

The Atlantis special economic zone (SEZ)‚ approved by the cabinet in June‚ briefly hosted the country’s first citizen‚ who spoke to the VIPs inside a marquee at a sports stadium after visiting a factory that manufactures wind turbines parts.

As Ramaphosa spoke‚ a small crowd of locals jostled a police line outside the stadium‚ hoping to reach the president.

The 124.5ha Atlantis zone‚ one of nine countrywide‚ is a green technology hub that already hosts several investors.

To date‚ about 30 foreign and local companies have invested more than R500m in Atlantis.

Each of the nine zones specialises in a specific sector.

“They (the zones) are being established close to where our people live,” Ramaphosa said. “These can contribute much to reshaping the spatial landscape of the apartheid economy.”

He said incentives attached to the zones include VAT and customs exemptions and infrastructure support.

Ramaphosa hopes the zones would feed into opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area‚ to get African nations manufacturing their own goods and trading with each other.

The president highlighted investment success stories in Atlantis‚ which now has an investment pipeline of R2.4bn.

He said this would create an estimated 1 400 jobs.

“We must continue to harness the power of initiatives such as the Atlantis zone‚ which bring together business‚ organised labour and government in a single marketplace.

“It is through partnerships like this one that we can succeed in building an enduring economy.”