A new National Industrial Parks Implementation Framework will be developed, to support the revitalisation of industrial parks across all spheres of government.
This is one of the key resolutions coming out of the two day National Industrial Parks Summit held at the Centre for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria. A technical task team comprising key stakeholders will therefore be put in place to develop the new implementation framework.
The summit was held in a partnership between the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic), National Treasury, the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC-SA) and supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH-Natural Resources Stewardship Programme (GIZ-NatuReS)
The summit reflected on a number of challenges that have plagued industrial parks over the years, resulting in massive declines in their performance, which in turn led to major job losses. The challenges include vandalism, provision of basic services such as water and electricity, availability of infrastructure and governance problems.
The Director of Regional Industrial Development at the dtic, Mr Thami Klaasen, says delegates have agreed in the main that industrial parks can no longer operate uncoordinated manner, it is important that they are transformed into dynamic sites which provide enhanced services.
“Some critical measures needed to revitalise the parks include integrating eco-industrial development, resilience approaches, stewardship and 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) modalities designed to improve business operations and provide a more attractive environment for investment,” he said.
In addition, Klaasen says other key resolutions taken at the summit include the establishment of a rapid response team to urgently resolve bottlenecks confronting high priority parks, and to also assess future development areas.
“We have also agreed to conduct more research studies on areas such as incentives for investors, public private partnerships and conducting a skills audit to assist industrial parks delivery mechanism. We will also investigate and draft a legal notice on an Intergovernmental Relations mechanism to apply to all stakeholders in pursuit of forging accountability across all spheres of government, to implement sustainable industrial ecosystems,” he adds.
District roadshows will also be undertaken in the next few months to raise awareness and build capacity on the importance of the industrial parks and their ecosystems to communities and other critical stakeholders.
Enquiries:
Bongani Lukhele – Director: Media Relations
Tel: (012) 394 1643
Mobile: 079 5083 457
WhatsApp: 074 2998 512
E-mail: BLukhele@thedtic.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
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