Question NW79 to the Minister of Trade and Industry
16 February 2017 - NW79
Macpherson, Mr DW to ask the Minister of Trade and Industry
With reference to the announcement that his department will spend R216 million upgrading a further five industrial parks, (a) what concessions have been secured from the relevant (i) local councils and (ii) provinces with respect to rebates and (b) did any companies commit in writing to investing in any of these parks; (2) has a business plan been drawn up to support the specified investment; if not, why not and if so, what are the relevant details?NW83E
Reply:
1. The revitalization of the industrial parks was informed by a scoping exercise in 2015 which was followed by a detailed assessment conducted in 2016. Further the dti facilitated a symposium involving all the industrial parks as well as the local councils and provincial representatives. The purpose of the symposium was to strengthen collaboration across all stakeholders including development of future funding models for the sustainability of the Industrial parks. Standard operating procedures for the industrial parks are being developed which will detail amongst other things funding models including the implementation of concessions and rebates. In addition, the development of an investor handbook is underway to be completed by March 2018.
2. An implementation plan was drawn up outlining a phased approach to be followed in revitalizing the industrial parks. This included prioritizing the critical infrastructure needs of the various industrial parks. The first and second phases provide for security and bulk infrastructure upgrades whilst the last two phases will address the investor specific infrastructure needs including top structure upgrades and strengthening the management capacity in the industrial parks. In addition, the dti is supporting the firms located in the industrial parks through the cluster development programme to enhance their competitiveness.