Dube TradePort keeps the numbers coming

The flagship Dube TradePort development has secured R1.7 billion in private sector investment to date. This has resulted in the creation of an overall 953 temporary job opportunities and 432 permanent jobs. Dube TradePort, is one of the province’s two Special Economic Zones, the other being the Richards Bay IDZ,Dube TradePort mainly enables the manufacturing and agri-processing sectors.

The Dube TradePort, which incorporates the King Shaka International Airport, is also central to the province’s Aerotropolis Master Plan which seeks to use the aviation sector as one of the key economic growth nodes.

It is a world-class development offering globally integrated logistics and manufacturing infrastructure, and support for a range of airport-related activities, including cargo operations, warehousing, agriculture, and commercial real-estate for office, retail and hospitality.

Already, the province, through its Routes Development Committee, has managed to attract a number of international airlines into KwaZulu-Natal, the latest addition being British Airways which was announced by the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mr Sihle Zikalala at Africa’s Travel Indaba.

The airline will use its latest aircraft on the route, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner which will fly three times a week between Heathrow and King Shaka International Airports. “Our focus, going forward, is on attracting new flight routes to India and the Far East. We are confident of a sustained development at Dube TradePort with an additional R1.3 billion worth of private sector investment expected to flow into this special economic zone during this financial year.” MEC, Sihle Zikalala for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs said. Despite tough economic pressures, the good news keeps rolling as Zikalala also announced, during the delivery of his department’s budget, that Trade and Investment KZN attracted R2.1 billion worth of new investments into the province last year.

Property development took the biggest slice of that pie. These new investments have the potential to create over 3650 new jobs. The agency has assisted companies to retain and create over 2 200 jobs as a result of its interventions on expansions and business retention initiatives. Zikalala said that TIKZN will be working closely with the President’s Special Envoys on Investment Attraction as well as Invest SA in ensuring that the province features prominently and benefits substantially from the R1.2 trillion investment drive. Dube TradePort is strategically positioned at the intersection of local and global intermodal transport routes.

Dube TradePort is a 50-year master-planned airfreight and passenger hub, comprising five business zones:

• Dube TradeZone: A prime, fully-serviced industrial precinct of 77 hectares, growing to 300 hectares, for electronics, pharmaceuticals and aerospace manufacturing, assembling, and distribution;

• Dube Cargo Terminal: A state-of-the-art cargo handling facility with digital tracking and secure cargo flow through on-site statutory bodies, which prides itself on 0% cargo loss since inception in 2010;

• Dube AgriZone: An advanced agricultural precinct that provides world-class facilities and technical support for propagating, growing, packing and distributing high-value perishables and horticultural products through an efficient supply chain;

• Dube City: A 12-hectare premium business and hospitality precinct, just 3 minutes from the passenger terminal;

• Dube iConnect: A cutting-edge telecommunications platform and premier cloud service provider, servicing the  Dube TradePort precinct and KwaZulu-Natal’s only locally-hosted cloud service, making it the premier offering for regional data recovery.