Investors are investing and exports are growing

The Trade, Investment and Innovation Unit of the ECDC is committed to promoting trade with and investments into the Eastern Cape.

and facilitates foreign and local direct investment. Services include lobbying for conducive policy, aftercare investor services, assistance to investors to access incentive schemes and local business networks, providing market information and facilitating access to greenfield and brownfield sites.

The Trade, Investment and Innovation Unit markets the Eastern Cape to investors, supports existing investors, promotes exports and the ECDC as an implementing agent for development initiatives.

Trade Promotion

The Trade Promotion Unit provides opportunities to export-ready local businesses to penetrate local and foreign markets by means of non-financial support. Major export markets are Germany, Hong Kong, the US, China, Netherlands, Namibia and India.

Once a company has been assessed as “exportready”, the unit facilitates annual trade missions, exhibitions and thematic workshops to offer networking platforms, trade/export knowledge and access to prospective clients in targeted countries.

Investment

The Investment Promotion Unit is the official investment promotion agency of the Eastern Cape Province. The unit actively markets the province

ECDC contact details

Address: 1 Moore Street, Quigney, East London

Tel: +27 43 704 5604

Email: info@ecdc.co.za

Website: www.ecdc.co.za

Investors will find four universities and a number of TVET colleges which offer high-impact tertiary education. Set-up costs for new business are extremely competitive in terms of land and rental prices, construction costs and overall input costs. The Eastern Cape has three ports, four airports and good road and rail links and offers easy access to domestic, SADC and global markets.

Local, provincial and national government have a range of investment incentives available for new and existing operations. These incentives range from manufacturing rebates to preferential production factor costs.

Innovation

The Innovation sub-unit facilitates strategic domestic and international investment into sectordriven, catalytic innovation projects. The sub-unit facilitates investment and growth into new industry sectors introduced by the global shift to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This is achieved through: support for catalytic and high-impact projects that can unlock economic activity and promote local beneficiation and diversification; promotion of new products that encourage import substitution; growth of a pipeline that creates viable opportunities for the Development Finance and Properties Development units and for government and entrepreneurs. ■

The Eastern Cape is the second-largest citrusproducing province with the Sundays River Valley being the country’s single biggest production area. South Africa is the world’s second-largest exporter of citrus fruit. A national export record was achieved in 2020, with 146-million cartons of fresh citrus being exported (second only to Spain). Citrus yielded R3.4-billion in exports for the Eastern Cape.

National citrus exports have grown by more than 40% in the past decade to about R20-billion per year. The Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa forecasts an increase from the current 150-million 15kg cartons to 200-million in the next five years, and this is projected to grow still further to 255-million by 2030.

Automotive strength

The list of winners at the annual awards function for Exporters Eastern Cape Exporter of the Year gives a good indication of the strength of the province’s automotive and automotive supply sectors.

Exporters Eastern Cape is a non-profit organisation comprised of members from export companies, freight forwarders, financial institutions and shipping lines.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s Enterprise Development Programme has several parts: the Export Development Programme is the latest initiative.

The Eastern Cape Development Corporation offers extensive support to exporters through its Trade Promotion Unit which facilitates annual trade missions, exhibitions and workshops to offer networking platforms, share knowledge and gain access to prospective clients.

Acoustex Group, a Gqeberha-based automotive component manufacturer, won Exporter of the Year 2021, in addition to the prize for best exporter in the medium enterprise category. The company created a new product line by acquiring a company and increased direct and indirect export turnover to 12 countries by 24%.

Among the products produced by Acoustex are sound deadeners, moulded insulation parts, carpets, parcel trays, tailgate covers and back-panel components. Other companies in the group make vehicle protection kits, vehicle protection seat covers and technical laminated fabrics for medical and domestic use. An interesting category prioritised environmental accreditation and environmental management. Merit awards were given in the SJM Flex Environmental Award to the Coega Development Corporation, Purem, Isuzu and Volkswagen Group South Africa.

Volkswagen also won Best Exporter Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) with Isuzu being recognised for skills development and transformation initiatives.

In recent years, each of the province’s OEMs has been steadily increasing export volumes, often breaking new records in successive years.

In 2016 Mercedes-Benz recorded a new high for the month of April of 10 674 vehicles exported through the Port of East London. Over seven years to 2021, 650 000 C-Class models were built, of which more than 90% were exported. Volkswagen has sent 326 000 Polos into the global market since 2018.

An interesting addition to the export basket of Isuzu Motors is pick-up kits in knocked down (KD) format which are being sent to Isuzu East Africa, an affiliate in Kenya.

Ford makes engines at its plant in Struandale, Gqeberha. The company wants to persuade national government to upgrade the railway line between Gauteng (where it makes its vehicles) and Gqeberha so that it can send parts up the line to Tshwane and export its vehicles out of the port. Fully 75% of the company’s product is exported to more than 100 markets around the world. In September 2020, Ford led automotive exports with 6 995 vehicles. ■