Appeal for investment in KZN

Durban - A call has gone out for all “interested investors” to come forward and speak to the KwaZulu-Natal government about having a stake in some of the region’s ambitious projects.

MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Sihle Zikalala made the call when he addressed a reception at the Maharani Hotel in Durban last week to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

With Chinese investors already pouring millions of rands worth of development into KZN and creating thousands of local jobs, Zikalala took advantage of the event to speak about the many investment opportunities available in the province.

Giving a “sneak preview” of some of the projects in either the planning or implementation stage, he highlighted the high-speed rail project between Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg, which was valued at R30 billion, and which was expected to create some 25 000 jobs.

Then there were the industrial economic hubs - manufacturing parks - that would also yield 26 000 jobs, as well as the WoodStock Waterlands, a waterland theme park in the Drakensberg, valued at R576 million and expected to mean work for 500 people.

There was also the Nonoti Beach Resort on the North Coast, which was wholly owned by a community trust, which needed a capital injection of R360m. Five hundred jobs would also be created.

There was also an R8bn Tongaat Hulett Development north of uMhlanga, involving 600 jobs, as well as the R30bn Tongaat Hulett Cornubia projects, one of the biggest mixed-use, mixed-income, integrated human settlement projects in KZN.

“There are many others that are in the offing, and we would invite all interested investors to come forward and speak to us should they be interested in having a stake in any of these initiatives,” the MEC said.

Zikalala recalled the recent visit to KZN of a high-powered delegation from the Guangdong province of China, led by the governor, Zhu Xiaodan -where eight agreements worth R2.2bn were signed between businesses on both sides - and said a KZN provincial delegation later visited Guangdong where they gained “valuable insight” into the setting up and operation of special economic zones (SEZ).

Praising China as “a citadel of excellence” when it came to SEZ implementation, he reminded guests, who included the local diplomatic corps, that DubeTradePort and Richards Bay Industrial Zone were both SEZs.

The Chinese consul-general in Durban, Jianzhou Wang, who hosted the celebration with his wife, Madame Sun Yaling, told how the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB) was to be included in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights basket (an international reserve asset) from this month, which was a landmark recognition of China’s increased role in the global economy, “which was a welcome change for China and the world”.

Since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy more than 30 years ago, the Chinese economy had maintained rapid growth, turning a relatively poor and backward country into the world’s second largest economy, the biggest trader of goods and the third largest direct overseas investor.

Last month alone, China’s high-speed rail network of more than 20 000km came into service, making it longer than the rest of the world’s highspeed rail tracks combined.

In the eight months after President Xi Jinping’s state visit to South Africa last year, China and Africa had signed 243 co-operation agreements worth US$50.8bn (R695.7bn).

China-South Africa relations and beneficial co-operation between the two countries was reaching new heights.

Several big Chinese investment projects had been launched in Durban this year and the prospect of further, co-operation was “very bright”, he predicted.

DAILY NEWS