Pretoria - Tshwane automotive special economic zone, which is envisaged to enable Ford Motor Company to produce over 200 000 cars a year by 2022, forms part of Gauteng government’s projects to support President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.
This was announced by Premier David Makhura this week during a debate on the president’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan, in the joint sitting of Parliament.
The debate took place after Ramaphosa announced bold plans aimed at kick-starting the country’s ailing economy amid the rampaging Covid-19 pandemic.
Makhura hailed the City’s automotive special economic zone as one of the largest things the country has built since the 2010 Fifa World Cup, saying it was being built at an unprecedented pace.
“We are already gearing up to enable strategic localisation, industrialisation and support promotion by a network of special economic zones in Gauteng. Beginning with the mammoth Tshwane automotive special economic zone already under construction, the network will soon expand to include agro-processing, bio-energy and advanced manufacturing, for export in the western and southern districts of Gauteng,” he said.
He said the special economic zone was, in partnership with Transnet and Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, developing to complement the KwaZulu-Natal-Gauteng freight corridor, which was already the busiest on the continent.
“The new high-capacity rail corridor will connect Tshwane special economic zone via the Tambo springs logistic gateway, to an expanded deep-water Port Ngqura, which connects the Coega economic zone,” Makhura said.
“We are also actively ramping up tourism infrastructure upgrades in our major leisure belts, including the Cradle of Humankind, Dinokeng and the Vaal Region,” the premier said.
Pretoria News