On 15 September 2009 Saldanha Bay Municipality held a Business Information Session regarding the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone area.It was very well attended by over 200 people. The Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce (Saldanha), Saldanha Bay Municipality, Saldanha Bay BEE Forum and Saldanha Bay Business Chamber also used this opportunity to sign a Memorandum of agreement in this regard.


The IDZ, with an envisaged R 300m first phase, would consist of 5 Clusters:

1. Natural assets - i.e. the Maritime hub. It is envisaged that it would be extended to benefit ore exports and container traffic.
2. Development of minerals - i.e. the development of current mines and exports like Namakwa Sands and Orex.
3. Steel industry - i.e. the further development of the steel production and related industries.
4. Dry docks & Gas and Oil - i.e. the development of facilities for offshore oil exploration, storage and refineries. Also oil platform production and boat building.
5. Renewable energy - i.e. a wind farm, solar power and biomass power generation.

Cluster 5 was presented in detail as this is already in process. An agreement is already in the White Paper stage to supplement the ESKOM grid.

WindSA, represented by Matteo Perego, showed a slide show of the onshore and offshore wind farm power generation developments that they build in Europe. They envisage an R 800m 10MW pilot plant in the West Coast with most production happening here as well.

Sharp, represented by Mathew Silvester, also made a very interesting presentation. Sharp will make an R10b investment in the West Coast over 4 years with "the biggest solar power farm in the world" with a lifespan of at least 20 years. Most of the production will also happen here.

From here on everything you read is the personal opinion of yours truly. Unfortunately the West Coast has heard all these wonderful stories on numerous occasions - but we always remain optimistic. A lot of reference was made to the Koega IDZ in the Eastern Cape and this in itself is a cause of worry; It still has not developed as it was envisioned - 10 years ago. The West Coast cannot afford more dead capital. I think the West Coast IDZ can be a success if two things can be achieved. Firstly we need to prevent some politician or political party from adding the IDZ development to their personal CV. The IDZ talks started in the late 90's already - long before any of the current politicians were even on the scene. Secondly we must have a related experienced Lead Consultant.

From what I could gather after the meeting, was that people are quite excited with what is envisioned in the West Coast and we have already had some enquiries regarding residential and industrial developments that are in the planning phases. So - without being my old pessimistic self - let's see what happens. We will definitely not sit and wait for it to happen.