On September 10th South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies, issued a notice to designate Atlantis a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). This notice has been welcomed by the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Provincial Government and GreenCape.
The notice provides the public and interested parties with an opportunity to submit their written comments within 30 days from September 8 to support or object to the designation. The SEZ will be developed as a GreenTech hub with a particular focus on clean technologies, electronics, solar and wind energy technologies, energy efficient technologies, alternative waste management, alternative building materials, and technologies, among others.
The development of the Atlantis GreenTech SEZ has and will continue to attract more investors to the area, contributing to changing the development landscape of the entire Atlantis and neighbouring areas, which are currently confronted by many problems, including high unemployment, poverty, and drug abuse.
There are already 5 operational Investors in the proposed zone (totalling approximately R680m in investment) with a further 2 investors in advanced stages of negotiation with the city to lease the land. Before 2022 there is an anticipated R1,8bn in investments as well as the creation of about 1200 direct jobs. Over the 20-year life of the SEZ this gives a Full Time Equivalent job number of 24 000 jobs.
To read more on this, click here.
What GreenCape CEO Mike Mulcahy talk about the designation of the SEZ and the renewable energy market in South Africa here.