Provincial Growth and Development Plan
Progress in Implementation
As part of his State of the Province address this year, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu highlighted some of the progress made in implementing the PGDP, since last year's address, which took place in June.
"This State of the Province address is a special one as it marks the end of the first five-year cycle in the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) and our own Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP)," he said. "The significance of this is that we have now moved into the first year of the second five-year term of the NDP and the PGDP, and have now shifted our focus to the 2015 to 2020 period and targets expressed in these plans. We are particularly focussed on the year ahead."
The Premier said it was important to reflect on what has been achieved and that the Province finds itself on its way to achieve its vision for 2030.
All departments in the Province have developed Five Year Strategic Plans which are aligned to the NDP and PGDP for the period 2015 to 2020, which means that the Province is ready to start the second five-year term of the NDP and PGDP.
Mchunu explained that a "rugged" institutional arrangement was in place through 18 PGDP Action Work Groups, wherein space has been created for government and all its development partners to work together in refining the plan and keeping it elevant, but most importantly to drive its implementation.
He then detailed the progress that has been made in its implementation, drawing on information provided by PGDP structures. Some of the successes are:
- Increased employment from 2 170 000 in 2010 to 2 419 000 in 2014, despite a lower than anticipated economic growth rate.
- Successful conclusion of Operation Phakisa or the Ocean Lab approach by conducting a Poverty Eradication Lab, as well as a Lab on the Makhathini YDevelopment.
- Participation in the declaration of Dube TradePort (DTP) as an Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), which is the first step to having this area declared as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), as soon as this legislative framework is promulgated later this year
- The Richards Bay IDZ has completed its Master Plan to guide the most efficient development and servicing of ts existing land parcels and to acquire new strategically located land. This IDZ which is also set to become a SEZ linked to the Port of Richards Bay, provides the province with an ideal platform to promote its declared intent to maximise opportunities related to the ocean economy, manufacturing, beneficiation, as well as new and innovative oil and gas energy options
- Four sites have been identified for the development of Techno-Hubs as local technology support and incubation centres in Newcastle, Pietermaritzburg, the Hibiscus Coast and Umhlatuze;
- A commitment was made to assist the eMadlangeni community to bring together all local stakeholders in a local structure to facilitate peaceful solutions to issues creating tensions in the area, as well as to initiate a process to establish Agri-Villages in this area. The purpose of this project is firstly to ensure that relationships between communities, commercial farmers, land claim trusts, institutions of traditional leadership and other local structures are strengthened, and secondly to guide settlement patterns to protect high value agricultural land
- The development of the Keystone Light Industrial and Logistics Park on the N2 Corridor between eThekwini and Msunduzi, valued at more than R6-billion, which has received all its development approvals and is now moving towards construction;
- The Blythedale Beach Development, which has been revived after successfully resolving a protracted dispute between the developers and land claimants;
- The Music City South Africa tourism project proposed in the Ugu District, which has the potential of being one of the largest gamechangers in the tourism sector in KwaZulu-Natal. The province has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the project owners in terms of which it is providing support to the developers by facilitating compliance with regulatory processes and to get the project going as soon as possible.