Coega investment drive on track – Silinga

COEGA DEVELOPMENT Corporation (CDC) chief executive officer Pepi Silinga says the organisation’s investment drive is on track, with some of the first tenants already operational. “Over and above the R26-billion worth of investments signed between March 2006 and April this year, an additional deal has been signed with one of the major banks for a call-centre operation,” says Silinga. The CDC signed up nine investors against a target of 10 for the previous financial year, and again has a target of 10 for this year. The bulk of the R26-billion investment is the planned Alcan aluminium smelter at R20-billion. Silinga says Alcan will “break ground” in February 2008. The next-biggest is a proposed chlorine production plant by Straits Chemicals at a value of R5.8 -billion. Government institutions have invested R2-billion in the IDZ (DTI), R3.2-billion in the port of Ngqura (Transnet) with a R2.1-billion investment by Eskom to supply power, and R500-million by Transnet for rail links. This makes Transnet the biggest parastatal investor in the Coega project. Dynamic Commodities (frozen fruit sorbets), Acoustex (vehicle interiors), Biomass (alternative fuels) and Bosun Bricks are among the tenants already manufacturing. Recently, the CDC completed the building of the first commercial warehouse in the Coega IDZ.