The 2016 edition of the Gauteng Business and Investment Guide is the premier business and investment guide for the Gauteng province and the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA). In addition to detailed profiles of key provincial organisations, including the GGDA, the Automotive Industry Development Corporation Centre (AIDC), the Gauteng Investment Centre, the Gauteng IDZ, the Gauteng ICT Park SEZ and Constitution Hill, this edition includes well-researched economic and demographic data on the province, as well as insights into the province’s five development corridors and the new industries and development nodes in these corridors; a focus on Gauteng as a global city region; and key growth sectors for the province.
Corridor talk The
Corridor talk The Gauteng Provincial Government has committed itself to building a new Gauteng with a radically transformed economy. GAUTENG BUSINESS 2016 26
SPECIAL FEATURE The Gauteng Provincial Government’s introduction of the development of five business corridors to boost economic growth in the province could well be seen as South Africa’s biggest attempt to encourage transformative partnerships between different spheres of government and the private sector. The bold project, which was allocated a whopping R10-billion of the province’s R95.3-billion 2015/16 budget, will also, in conjunction with the municipalities involved, attempt to change the space and structure of the economy in order to address unemployment, poverty and inequality. Gauteng’s five development corridors A macro-intervention is staged, aiming to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality. Over the next five years the government intends mobilising R100-billion on restructuring physical assets and capital transfers in the region, in partnership with municipalities and private sector partners. Considering Gauteng contributes to 34% of the country’s gross domestic product, appropriating 10.5% of the 2015/16 budget towards the provinces regeneration is sure to ensure economic wellbeing! To achieve its ambitions, the government intends reconfiguring the City’s space along five ‘corridors.’ The success of the province’s radical transformation, modernisation and re-industrialisation programme rests largely upon the level of collaboration and dedication of all role-players involved. Joint partnerships supporting infrastructure investment will lend itself to township economy revival and planned spatial restructuring, and form the pillars of government’s planned intervention approach. Together, the focus is on building and coordinating industries into respective spaces or ‘corridors’. The five development corridors across Gauteng will have distinct industries and different comparative advantages, but still remain dependent on one another, operating as a single body of mutual co-operation. As more people each year find themselves migrating from rural areas into city nodes in search for employment, management of urban dynamics by planning experts and various stakeholders will ensure that citizens are positioned closer to economic opportunity. The outcome; economic as well as social inclusion across all corridors. This is in stark contrast to the apartheid era, where rural residents were marginalised from the economic hubs. Future policies around special planning will grapple with issues of apartheid’s legacy, effectively reversing the negative aspects of urban sprawl. In his speech, Gauteng Premier David Makhura urged on economic empowerment, insisting, “We need deliberate and conscious action by the entire city region leadership to reverse spatial injustice” 27 GAUTENG BUSINESS 2016
