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The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) is spending more than R21 million for the upgrading of the infrastructure at the Seshego Industrial Park based in Polokwane. The park’s infrastructure upgrading is part of the department’s Revitalisation of Industrial Parks Programme.

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.

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 is implemented in phases focusing on various areas. The first phase of the Seshego park’s revitalisation project, for which the dti is spending R21million, includes the upgrading and provision of security, electricity, road, bulk water supply and sewage treatment infrastructure.

the dti is 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 the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, the dti 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,” says Minister Davies.

Minister Davies adds that the Revitalisation of the Industrial Parks Programme is part of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) aimed at promoting industrialisation in the country and boosting our manufacturing capacity to increase the production of exportable goods.

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 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,” says Minister Davies.

Issued by Department of Trade and Industry