LOCATION
The key driving force behind the East London IDZ’s existence is to position your business for growth by ensuring that your business is ideally located for access to markets, natural resources (inputs) and a skilled workforce .
Locating your facility in the East London IDZ will afford you great opportunity for:
Access to markets
The East London IDZ is positioned on the south eastern sea board of South Africa, a country with a growing economy and abundant business opportunity. With rail, road and air access to all major cities in South Africa as well as the rest of Africa, the East London IDZ provides a great platform for market seeking investors who want to grow their African footprint.
Major shipping lanes pass along the South African coastline in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the country’s eight world class commercial ports form by far the largest, best equipped and most efficient network on the African continent. These eight commercial ports provide a natural stopover for shipping to and from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australasia and both coasts of Africa.
The East London IDZ is directly serviced by the East London Port, a world class port situated just under 10km from the zone’s entrances, offering investors direct shipments to Africa, Asia and Europe.
Manufacturers located in the East London IDZ can also bring their shipments through Ngqura deepwater port which has capacity to accommodate new generation container vessels form the hub of north-south and south-south sea traffic.
ACCESS TO ABUNDANT NATURAL RESOURCES
The East London IDZ is situated in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, a province charectirised by its rich Rich natural resources including grazing for livestock, forestry, rich farming soil and abundant water, offering a thriving platform for the development of natural resource intensive industries such agro-processing, mariculture and renewable energy.
With all seven of South Africa’s ecological zones, the province’s climate allows for the production of a wide range of crops. Crops as diverse as pineapples, tea, tomatoes and chicory are successfully cultivated. The location is the country’s premier livestock region and presents excellent opportunities for meat, leather and wool processing.
The location boasts an en established Forestry industry with major commercial plantations established. This is the only province where forestry can be extended under the existing forestry permit system.