CDC extends focus beyond Coega

The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) has changed its focus from an industrial development company “simply” focusing on the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) to a management services company. “The world is moving more into services, and so is Coega,” CDC board deputy chairperson Paul Jourdan told a stakeholder briefing in Port Elizabeth. According to Jourdan, the CDC is “helping other sectors of government with management and technical expertise” in government projects totalling R5.5-billion. These include the Richards Bay and Mafikeng IDZs, according to CDC chief executive officer Pepi Silinga. Both the public and private sector were being targeted by the CDC, which had a “successful partnership with the VWSA Group” that was attracting investors to the Nelson Mandela Bay Logistics Park, which is managed by Coega on behalf of the local municipality. According to both speakers, economic prospects had changed fundamentally since the Coega IDZ was established ten years ago. Not least of which South Africa has gone from an electricity surplus to a shortage, said Jourdan. “The CDC has adopted as areas of priority the petro-chemical, biofuels, business process outsourcing and skills development sectors.” For the immediate future, the focus is on procuring a giant PetroSA refinery for Coega.