Opportunities

Investing in North West

North West, strategically located between Botswana in the west and the economic powerhouse of Gauteng in the east, is known as the Platinum Province for the wealth of the metal it has underground. It also offers a sophisticated tourist industry and agricultural abundance.

There are many opportunities for increasing the income-producing capacities of the local industries, enhancing product beneficiation inside the province and participating more fully in the international markets linked to the region's resources.

Invest North West
Invest North West is a specialist investment promotion agency offering a comprehensive service to help new investors set up their businesses.

The agency gives advice on potential investments, helps investors find the right business location, compile their business plans and source funding, assists with applications for incentive schemes and visas, and identifies suppliers and professional firms who can help establish the business.

Invest North West

Mining
Mining contributes 23.3% to the North West economy, and makes up 22.5% of the South African mining industry as a whole. Ninety-four percent of the country's platinum is found in the Rustenburg and Brits districts, which produce more platinum than any other single area in the world.

Employment along the Platinum Corridor, from Pretoria to eastern Botswana, accounts for over a third of total employment in North West. The province also produces a quarter of South Africa's gold, as well as granite, marble, fluorspar and diamonds.

There is a real opportunity to develop industries and associated firms with the mining sector in the Rustenburg and eastern districts and beneficiation and related industries in the Brits-Rustenburg area.

Tourism
North West has a sophisticated tourism industry, being home to the famous Sun City complex. Lying next to the Pilanesburg National Park.

Sun City is one of the world's biggest entertainment centres, with a casino, an 18-hole golf course, theatres and concert halls, beaches and a wave pool at the Valley of the Waves, a meticulously reconstructed tropical rainforest, and a number of world-class hotels that include the remarkable Palace of the Lost City.

Agriculture
North West is also known as the Texas of South Africa, with some of the largest cattle herds in the world found at Stellaland near Vryburg. The Marico region is also cattle country, while the areas around Rustenburg and Brits are fertile, mixed-crop farming land.

The province is an important food producer. Maize and sunflowers are the most important crops and the North West is the major producer of white maize in the country.

North West Department of Agriculture

Investment opportunities
A flexible and adaptable labour force, rich natural resources, low cost of living, good quality lifestyle and warm temperate climate have made North West a popular destination for foreign investors.

Klerksdorp Chamber of Commerce

The province offers investment opportunities in the following key areas:

Leather processing and products - In recent years North West has seen a rapid shift from being a producer of semi-processed hides to finished leathers, specifically for the automotive industry and, to a lesser extent, for leather furniture.

The sector is dominated by the automotive leather market, which is almost entirely export-oriented. Leather furniture is a lower-margin market with a strong local component.

Meat processing - The meat industry is based on the extensive livestock available in the province. There are also significant backward and forward linkages in areas such as feed production, animal breeding, feedlot development and animal by-products for the fertiliser industry. The industry offers opportunities for companies looking for both local markets and export platforms into Africa and Europe.

Automotive industries - There is a significant concentration of manufacturing in the proposed 501 areas around Pretoria in Gauteng as well as along a manufacturing belt stretching across the province.

This sector houses a wide range of industries from large to small business, and from the established to the emerging formal sectors and represents an enormously healthy diversity that provides an environment for potential growth.

Of particular importance is the automotive spine that winds its way from Botswana (Hyundai) through to Brits (Robert Bosch, Firestone) and Rosslyn (BMW, Nissan).

The proliferation of associated firms (original equipment and after-market) serving the automotive industries along the spine is most evident. This spine presents opportunities for future development, including linkages with the automotive industry on the eastern edge of Pretoria.

Other investment opportunities include:

Food processing and related industries
Tourism and hotel industries
Agricultural industries
Auto-components
Jewellery
Manufacturing
Pharmaceuticals
Textiles and clothing
Electronics and electrical appliances
Furniture
Manufacturing and tourism

Development initiatives
There are many new developments which will substantially increase investment opportunities for the foreign investor:

The proposed Platinum Corridor toll road cutting through the North West will connect Namibia's Walvis Bay in the west to Maputo, the port-capital of Mozambique (via the Maputo Corridor) in the east. The ability to send goods by road or rail from any port on this route will cut down substantially on transit times.

The Pretoria-Rustenburg Spatial Development Initiative (SDI), which forms part of the proposed Platinum Corridor SDI, focuses on the area between Pretoria and Rustenburg. This route will reinforce the belt of existing economic activity in the area. Four productive economic sectors have been identified as lead sectors within these SDI regions: manufacturing, mining beneficiation, agriculture and agriprocessing, and tourism.