Page 13 - Provincial Treasury Estimates.pdf

Foreword

We are gearing the Eastern Cape Province as a destination for economic investments whilst
maintaining the focus on Health and Education as Apex priorities of provincial government to
further demonstrate our firm commitment to changing the lives of our people for the better.

To achieve this, we are taking practical steps towards putting investment enhancing strategies
that will enable economic inclusion targeting the young entrepreneurs and those wishing to
expand into new enterprises through investments in agricultural value chains, film, tourism,

auto sector and property development. The Departments of Economic Development,
Environment and Affairs and Tourism, Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Public Works

and Infrastructure and Transport including Eastern Cape Development Corporation, our two
Special Economic Zones, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency and Eastern Cape Socio
Economic Consultative Council are at the forefront of driving this initiative. It would be

impossible for government to drive these reforms alone hence a meaningful partnership with
provincial institutions of higher learning and private sector will be a priority.

We thus endeavour to significantly change the socio-economic status quo and fast track the

industrialisation of the Province through reviving our Industrial Parks. Our youth who are in
the majority in the Province will continue to be supported through facilities like the Isiqalo Youth
Fund. Unemployment remains a challenge that confronts us directly which as the government

are fully committed to tackle through efficiently utilising this 2023/24 budget.

We are resolute in upholding the decisions taken at the investment conferences held in 2022

where government committed to firstly make land available to developers through the
Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and the Eastern Cape Development
Corporation (ECDC). Secondly, we are strengthening the Isiqalo Fund, as well as blended

finance targeting agriculture production and Local and Regional Economic Development
which are all planned to be consolidated into one Provincial Economic Development fund
within the ECDC over the current MTEF period. Furthermore, we will encourage further

investment by national Development Finance Institutions, private sector and discussions are
ongoing in this regard.

The Honourable Premier Mr. Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane has asserted during the State of the
Province Address 2023 that “The provincial economy is on a path to recovery, after the

devastating period of Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021. We recorded growth in the Eastern
Cape Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first three quarters of 2022. As a result, the

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