Seshego industrial park receives R21 million facelift

The Seshego Industrial Park is to receive an injection of more than R21 million for the upgrading of infrastructure, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Minister Rob Davies announced recently.
This is part of the revitalisation of the industrial parks programme, a part of the industrial policy action plan (IPAP) aimed at promoting industrialisation in the country and boosting the country’s manufacturing capacity to increase the production of exportable goods. The objective of the programme is to revitalise state-owned industrial parks across the country in order to promote industrialisation and increase their contribution to job creation and the country’s economic growth. DTI Director-General Lionel October at an industrial parks revitalisation workshop last year said the department had set aside R80 million for the refurbishment and resuscitation of the country’s industrial parks.
The programme is also in line with the department’s economic transformation initiatives aimed at ensuring that all regions of the country and enterprises based there participate meaningfully in the mainstream economy.
The Seshego Industrial Park will be one of the first parks to be launched following the completion of the first phase of revitalisation. The revitalisation will be implemented in phases focusing on various areas. The first phase of the Seshego revitalisation project, on which the DTI is spending R21m, includes the upgrading and provision of security, electricity, road, bulk water supply and sewage treatment infrastructure.
The department will be working with the Limpopo Economic Development Agency on Investment and Export Promotion. The industrialists operating in the parks will benefit from various incentives offered by the DTI.
According to a press release on the announcement, Davies said his department had identified a need to revitalise industrial parks located in various parts of the country, mainly the former homelands, as part of efforts to promote industrialisation, manufacturing and job creation.
“This was motivated by the recognition that these industrial parks have the capacity to serve as catalysts for broader economic and industrial development in their host regions, mainly townships and rural areas. We would like to see them contributing to economic growth, diversification of economic activity, attracting investments to the areas they are located in, job creation and addressing the problem of inequality,” Davies reportedly said. “The programme will go a long way in accelerating economic development in the lagging regions of the country by attracting investments from businesses that will be inspired to locate in the parks after they have been refurbished. It will also support job creation mainly in the manufacturing sector, assist in the development of the infrastructure and facilitate market access for companies operating from the parks. In this way, the regions will be able to build, strengthen and develop their strategic industrial capabilities.”
Neither the spokesperson for DTI nor Ledet were available on Tuesday and Wednesday to supply information on when the upgrading was scheduled to begin.

Story: NELIE ERASMUS
>>nelie.observer@gmail.com