First Stop Shop
I
nvest Durban was recommended by the Durban City Council and organised private business as the “First Stop Shop” to stimulate new investment in the Durban metropolis. We act as a partnership between the Metro City Council and the private business sector, offering a free investor advisory service, plus key promotion, facilitation, and aftercare services between all investment stakeholders. Invest Durban delivers a world-class Metro based investor support service, encompassing our four part Business mandate, namely investment promotion and marketing; foreign investment identification, attraction and facilitation; FDI aftercare and expansion, plus investment advocacy. Invest Durban works together with organisations such as the Department of Trade & Industry including Invest SA, Trade and Investment KZN (TIKZN), the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the KZN Growth Coalition, and State-Owned Enterprises such as Dube TradePort, the DBSA, IDC, ACSA and others.
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Categories The thrust of Durban’s proposition to attract investors can be put into three broad categories: 1. Premium destination; a business and lifestyle environment most conducive to profitable, sustainable investments, with ample land available. 2. Catalytic Projects, which have the potential to shift the socio-economic landscape and trigger a series of investments across several sectors 3. Priority Sectors, which receive the focus of planners in a variety of ways, including the creation of clusters and the development of value chains to promote new ventures and investment opportunities.
Catalytic Projects Durban is working on a number of large-scale projects that have the potential to make a regional impact. The location of these projects is vital.
They must either be on national trade routes or they should help to break down the old apartheid living/working dynamics. Projects are selected for their scale in terms of job creation, investment size and potential revenue creation. Ideally, the projects should include a combination of uses (retail, commercial and housing, for example) and they should fit in with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The Point Waterfront Development, for example, fits very well into the category of a catalytic project. Some projections put the potential investment value at R40-billion and the number of permanent jobs to be created at 6 750. It is an ambitious plan that is already linking the city’s beach promenade and the harbour. The Point Waterfront Development offers a property use mix of office space, retail shops, residential dwellings and leisure options. The 55 ha site has already seen significant investment. A new cruise line terminal in the harbour, backing on to the Point will dovetail well with
