Gauteng Business 2016 edition

PROFILE
Gauteng ICT Park Special
Economic Zone
As we seek solutions to bridge the digital divide in Africa, provincial
government will play an important role in providing digital platforms
to help unlock new economic opportunities for growth and development.
Gauteng ICT Park SEZ
The ICT SEZ is an instrument available for the Gauteng
Province to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
and Direct Domestic Investment (DDI) to a dedicated
industrial park (NASREC) using meaningful incentive
packages from National Treasury (through agencies
such as the GGDA), the Department of Telecoms
& Postal Services, SARS, Municipalities and other
relevant institutions. It aims to provide world class
economic infrastructure and facilities to investors
through: offering competitive incentive packages
to attract and retain investments; developing and
providing required ICT skills to investor businesses,
shortening the processes of business registration,
permitting and settling of investors.
ICT and Gauteng
The technology explosion of the 21st century
also introduced the world to the digital economy.
Where just a few years ago this concept was
hardly known to those outside the Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) sector, we are
today fully submerged in the information age—and
equitable access to broadband has become a basic
human freedom, which must be guaranteed to all,
in an age where connectivity has become a utility
that can measure the quality of life, human progress
and economic development.
As the pressure on the South African Government
increases to bridge the digital divide and take technology
to the people in even the most remote areas
of the country, the ICT sector is blooming, and is
increasingly contributing to the country’s GDP.
In Gauteng, where nearly two thirds of all South
African ICT companies are locat ed, ICT contributes
more than 6% to regional GDP. A sure step in the
right direction in modernising the public service
and stimulating the province’s knowledge-based
economy, was last year’s inaugural Gauteng ICT
Summit, which highlighted the province’s goal of
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