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The Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape is one of the hottest investment destinations in the world today, offering opportunities galore, with prime industrial and agricultural land readily available, combined with a stable workforce, sophisticated city and industrial infrastructure, some of the country's best schools and tertiary education institutions. All this is topped with easy living and spectacular scenery, favourable exchange rates, a good skills base, low-cost labour, low electricity costs, easy access to international airports, world-class hospitals and affordable property prices. The second largest of South Africa’s nine provinces, home to world icon Nelson Mandela and current President Thabo Mbeki, the Eastern Cape is not only the fastest-growing province in South Africa, it is also being tagged the favoured province in which to live, work and invest. Offering a basketful of investment opportunities in manufacturing, tourism, agriculture and agro-processing, government’s economic development agency, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) facilitates and supports private sector development. Eastern Cape is one of the hottest investment destinations in the world today, offering opportunities galore, with prime industrial and agricultural land readily available, combined with a stable workforce, sophisticated city and industrial infrastructure, some of the country's best schools and tertiary education institutions. All this is topped with easy living and spectacular scenery, favourable exchange rates, a good skills base, low-cost labour, low electricity costs, easy access to international airports, world-class hospitals and affordable property prices. The second largest of South Africa’s nine provinces, home to world icon Nelson Mandela and current President Thabo Mbeki, the Eastern Cape is not only the fastest-growing province in South Africa, it is also being tagged the favoured province in which to live, work and invest. Offering a basketful of investment opportunities in manufacturing, tourism, agriculture and agro-processing, government’s economic development agency, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) facilitates and supports private sector development. Agriculture and Agro - Processing Agriculture is the lifeblood of the province’s rural economy, offering
numerous opportunities, complemented by ideal weather and soil conditions and
good irrigation. Cotton and Textiles The ECDC and the agriculture department with a private partner - Da Gama, a division of KAP Textile Holdings SA Ltd - will promote cotton production among established farmers, together with a gin mill at Adelaide to process the cotton, and, an export programme targeting key European and US retail markets. The project has already created 450 direct jobs and looks forward to having 6 000ha under cotton within the next three years.s Aloe Ferox Aloe harvesting is also becoming increasingly competitive in South Africa and, with the Eastern Cape being home to 80% of the country’s Aloe Ferox plant - the variety with the highest medicinal properties – the opportunities are bountiful. Estimates put the global raw aloe market at $90-million per year (at time of going to print $1 = R6.61) with the Chinese market alone expected to reach an estimated $2,4-billion by 2010. Floriculture The province’s infant floriculture sector is also attracting interest from investors. One successful new flower farm, Misty Mountains in Somerset East, has been established with the help of loans which have helped establish a workers’ trust, effectively giving the trust’s members a 65% stake and municipality a 35% share. Interestingly, flower farming has a much higher yield than, for example, maize. Alpaca Industry The ECDC has also helped consolidate the province’s fledgling alpaca industry with a R370 000 loan to eight employees of the Famous Wool Company (FWC) in Lady Grey. The wool’s qualities have niche appeal and the fibre is three times warmer, stronger and more versatile than sheep’s wool and comes in 22 natural colours. For these qualities, consumers are willing to pay a premium for alpaca’s very finest yarn - R400 per kg compared to R35 per kg for sheep’s wool. Information Technology The ECDC is also spearheading an Information Technology (IT) initiative, which aims to consolidate and grow the province’s IT sector. Abu Abdulatief, who assists with investment promotion in the IT sector, said the region offered the industry skilled personnel together with an unusually high concentration of outstanding educational institutions. Horticulture The Eastern Cape also has the potential to become the location of choice for greenhouse horticulture companies, said ECDC investment promotion head Pierre Leppan. He said several European companies had indicated a keen interest, with at least five companies expected to establish themselves in the province in the next five years |
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