Today in Pretoria, Nils Flaatten – the non-executive Chairperson of the Tshwane Economic Development Agency (TEDA), which is a municipal entity of the City of Tshwane, announced that the economic development agency had secured committed investment projects to the value R3.6-billion for the 2017/18 financial year. In addition, the entity again achieved a clean audit from the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA).
“TEDA has exceeded its annual investment target of R1.5-billion by R2.1-billion and achieved 17 out of 17 key performance targets. In the 2016/17 financial year, the agency had an investment target of R1-billion and we beat that by R200-million. This year we achieved three times the committed investment of the previous year and exceeded the achievements of two of the provincial investment promotion agencies by more than R1-billion. The role of cities is critical to attracting new investment to deliver tangible results that would make a difference to the local economy and to the lives of residents. Our investment pipeline has 15 new projects that could see us achieving about R2-billion in the 2018/19 financial year. A large part of the pipeline is made up of global tier-1 and -2 automotive suppliers, logistics projects, aviation and high-tech manufacturing.” said Flaatten.
The City of Tshwane, which was ranked behind Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in foreign direct investment (FDI) values during 2016, aims to improve this position in the coming years. Despite this, Tshwane was ranked the highest amongst other South African cities in the Growth Potential study conducted by BrandSA.
Addressing the external audit, Flaatten went on to say that “a strong focus on financial management, including internal controls, procurement and governance processes remained an important focus in the year and contributed to the clean audit opinion.”
Councillor Randall Williams, the member of the Mayoral Committee responsible for Economic Development and Spatial Planning said that the City of Tshwane has revised TEDA’s mandate and wanted it to focus on business destination marketing, export and investment promotion and special projects.
“When we appointed the new Board of Directors, Executive Mayor Msimanga and I made it very clear to the agency that they had to focus on promoting the City’s investment opportunities and that they had to ‘start telling the economic success story of Tshwane. For instance, many people do not realise that Tshwane has 12 JSE listed-companies, that Centurion has become an epicentre for high value business process outsourcing (even serving foreign markets like the United Kingdom and Australia), that we are a major player in the South African insurance sector with companies such as Momentum, Assupol, King Price Insurance and Outsurance operating out of the city. Growthpoint has recently announced that it will build a R450-million special surgical head-and-neck hospital in the City which will be the first in Africa. Logistics is a fast growing sector with Shoprite Checkers operating an 80 000-square metre distribution centre and new entrants such as OBC Chicken and Meat have also set up operations in a 25 000-square metre facility in Tshwane. Over the medium term, the City of Tshwane will become the South Africa’s export springboard into the African region.’ Williams said.
Export promotion
In relation to export promotion, TEDA said it has undertaken several outward trade missions to give local companies an opportunity to access international markets.
The entity has led delegations to the BME Symposium in Germany and exposed 10 South African companies to German buyers interested in sourcing South African products. TEDA has collaborated with the dti and took 6 Tshwane-based companies to the Annual Spring Fair Exhibition in Birmingham. Furthermore, a trade mission to Tanzania was undertaken with 6 companies to pursue opportunities in the mining and retail sectors.
Strategic and Catalytic Projects
Part of the strategic developmental work that TEDA has undertaken includes catalytic and strategic projects namely the Tshwane Agro-Processing Hub, Tshwane Bio-Energy Facility, Tshwane Clothing and Textile Hub, Tshwane Vertical Farming Facility, Groenkloof Nature Reserve precinct plan and the Tshwane Freight and Logistic Hub (TFTLH) project where TEDA continues to provide technical support as part of its development facilitation offerings. The TFTLH Heads of Agreements (HOA) between TEDA, Mzansi Rail Technology and Transnet was concluded during the 2017/18 financial year
The successes achieved by the entity set the bar very high for its future operations and efforts to ensure that it maintains high standards of performance it has achieved over a period of time. It is therefore against this backdrop that we are reviewing our strategy and operating model to be able to further enhance our agility and effectiveness as an organisation.
Click here to explore Strategic and Catalytic Projects in the City of Tshwane.
