The Department of Trade and Industry will this month embark on an investment roadshow to Shanghai, China, aimed at wooing investors to the South African Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

Led by Deputy Minister Bulelani Magwanishe, the roadshow scheduled for 26-31 May will give representatives of the South African government, implementers of the SEZ Programme and SEZs to present the value-proposition of South African SEZs to potential investors and financial institutions.

According to Magwanishe, the investment roadshow will take place in the form of workshops, where the South African SEZ delegation – led by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) – will make a presentation on South Africa’s SEZ opportunities and incentives offered.

The SA delegation will also conduct a benchmarking exercise for the South African SEZs by visiting thriving SEZs in Shanghai for knowledge-sharing.

“The roadshow seeks to attract potential investors in different sectors to invest in our SEZs. The targeted audience will include investors, Chinese financial institutions and government representatives.

“In order to have vibrant SEZs and competitive regional economies, it is necessary to continuously implement a systematic marketing and investment approach for various SEZs in South Africa and to also state their value-proposition to potential investors,” said Magwanishe.

South Africa has eight designated SEZs located in six of the country’s provinces. The SEZs are supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure and competitive tax incentive package. The SEZs are Coega, Richards Bay, East London, Saldanha Bay, Dube TradePort, Maliti-A-Phofung, OR Tambo and Musina/Makhado.

The Deputy Minister said one of the strategic initiatives that government, through the dti, has earmarked for accelerating the country’s industrial development agenda is the SEZs Programme.

“According to the pdf Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) (4.84 MB) , SEZs are used to stimulate foreign and domestic investment, increase production output leading to increased exports of value-added manufacturing goods and employment creation, amongst others,” he said.

In this light, Magwanishe said the fact that the current focus on the SEZ implementation programme is on attracting investments to the SEZs, the ultimate objective of the roadshow is to bring together high-level local and international investors together, with a view to entice their appetite to invest in South Africa.

Meanwhile, the South African business delegation has arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, for the three-day Trade and Investment Mission (TIM), which kicks off today.  

The objective of the TIM is to deliver on the dti’s investment-led trade approach towards the African continent and to deepen bilateral trade and investment relations between South Africa and Kenya, and between South Africa and Tanzania as important economies within their respective regions.