Bold moves to market South Coast

UGU South Coast Development Agency (Uscda) has pulled out all the stops for its share of investment inflows into the country, which it wants to capture through its value proposition that positions Ugu as a value-for-money, investment-friendly destination appealing to the most discerning investors.

“Tremendous progress has been made in aggressively marketing the area to international and domestic investors. The focus has been on niche markets,” Uscda chief executive Mandla Mabece said this week.

Uscda intends to transform the Ugu area into light industrial estates, help cultivate massive tracts of lands in traditional areas with high-end cash crops like macadamia and tea trees, and increase the number of viable small businesses in the area three-fold. This would be done through interventions such as tapping into strategic sectors and investment attraction.

It said it would also focus on property development, particularly in the coastal belt, traditional areas, and residential stock for the gap market. Other programmes that include agriculture (cultivation and value addition), industrial parks, tourism and small business development are high on the agenda.

Mabece said that over the past three years Uscda had explored avenues aimed at tapping into niche markets and investment in growth sectors, the focus being on opportunities that might have a bigger impact on the South Coast.

He said this area, which was declared a “poverty node” by former president Thabo Mbeki, still displayed “extreme poverty levels” for the majority of its citizens and “extreme opulence” for the few.

The institution said it was on a drive to change the space economy of KZN, as the South Coast had been lagging in comparison to other regions, particularly the N2 North corridor and the Midlands.

“We are marketing our product offerings to prospective investors as well as encouraging the development of SMMES in terms of market access and finance application from various government institutions that provide financial assistance.

“We are also reaching out to the private sector in accessing their respective social corporate responsibility budget allocations,” said Mabece.

Planning studies for a mega renewable energy project financed by the African Development Bank for the declining small town of Harding had begun.

The African Development Bank said in 2017 that the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa had approved $990000 (R14m) to ethala Management Services to finance the development of a 10MW biomass-topower plant.

Partnerships have been struck with the KZN Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Authority for the rollout of the National School Nutrition Programme meant to serve as a catalyst for rural women involved in cultivation by giving them access to institutional markets.

This would then up-scale and uplift them from a subsistence mode of production to full-scale commercial enterprise.

Mabece said their main highlight had been appreciation that economic growth was everybody’s responsibility and a collective approach was needed to present the area as an investment attraction.

“The commitment from the

South Coast Chamber of Business and the municipalities in jointly developing programmes that will communicate a single message that investment Ugu is a smart move.”