World Cup fast-tracks infrastructure upgrades
JOY ORLEK
THE 2010 Soccer World Cup has fast-tracked
Gauteng’s infrastructure upgrades enabling the
province to accomplish in five years what would
typically have taken 30.
“Current construction activity is unprecedented
and we need to use this period to reverse the
underinvestment legacy of the past and create a
world class economic and investment climate,” says
Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda)
senior manager: strategic communications, Barba
Gaoganediwe.
“Gauteng contributes a whopping 4 0% to
the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP),”
Gaoganediwe told FTW. “It’s the fourth biggest
economy in Africa after South Africa, Nigeria and
Egypt, with a global history around mining.”
But the idea is to change this focus.
“We have termed tourism the new mining in
Gauteng.
“We are also looking at work around mineral
beneficiation – making sure that we add value to the
products created here rather than just exporting raw
materials. We are looking at Gauteng becoming the
mecca for beneficiation across the continent.”
He believes that the province has all the
ingredients to make it work – world class logistics
systems and a high tech financial sector.
And there are already a number of success stories
which provide practical endorsement of the policy, the
cosmetics industry being a case in point.
“We recently took some companies in the
cosmetics field to showcase their products at an expo
in Canada, resulting in partnerships and collaboration
with a number of major international investors.
“Cosmetics is a big industry for Gauteng with a lot
of potential. We are concentrating on smart industries
– biotech, broadbanding, cosmetics and the film
industry among others.”
Commenting on the film industry potential,
Gaoganediwe has high expectations of Gauteng
becoming “Egolihood”.
“In Canada a month ago they told us about how
brilliant the Gauteng sunshine was in enhancing
their product. We are starting to see a number of
productions being shot in Gauteng and are working
with the Gauteng Film Commission to promote the
province as a filming mecca.”
Transport clearly plays a key role in the mix, and
high on the Geda agenda is the construction around
the Gautrain, a project that is creating opportunities far beyond its core transport focus.
“It’s affording us an opportunity to install and
upgrade some of our leading infrastructure,” said
Gaoganediwe. “We are looking at even including our
broadbanding pipes so that we can gear up for the
future.”
Geda would like to see Gauteng achieving status
as the 12th biggest global city region in the world
by 2015, following the likes of New York, Tokyo, Sao
Paolo, Vancouver and Toronto. And this would be
based on its economic offering and contribution to
GDP which are the key measures of economic success.
“If you rate us in terms of GDP contribution to the
national economy we are rated 9th in terms of cities,”
he added.
But Gaoganediwe is under no illusions about the
challenges that Gauteng faces.
“To translate growth in the economy into wealth
we need to create job opportunities and make a
dent in areas of under-development and poverty
reduction.”
Crime too is a worry, but he points out that it’s a
global phenomenon.
And he’s confident that reinforcement of the
police force is sending out the right message.
“We are enhancing the partnership between
business, government and civil society and with the
addition of 30 000 police officers into the system
not only to police 2010 but beyond, the fight against
crime will be significantly stepped up.
“In the past five years Geda’s contribution to the
Gauteng economy in terms of global investment has
been R7bn. We have set ourselves a target of R1.5-
R2bn for this financial year and we are confident that
we will treble it by then.”
