Eastern Cape Development Corporation
ECDC is the official economic development agency of the Eastern Cape government and a wholly-owned parastatal of the provincial department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs. It is best placed to be a critical interface between the public and private sectors with a vision to achieve the province’s socio-economic objectives through innovative and developmentally conscious private sector development.
ECDC comprises a staff complement of 140 people with a competent executive team, led by former Department of Trade and Investment chief Mxolisi Matshamba, who possess diverse skills in the multiple fields of economic development. Its presence in the province is far reaching with its headquarters in East London and offices in all the major centres in Mthatha, King William’s Town, Butterworth, Port Elizabeth and Queenstown.
The corporation has taken a collaborative approach to economic development by building strategic alliances with the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), the first two operational industrial development zones in the country, the Coega and East London IDZ’s, Independent Development Corporation (IDC), local and provincial economic development agencies and research institutions.
Key Eastern Cape sectors
ECDC has identified agro-processing, manufacturing, tourism, forestry and automotives as some of its priority sectors. The corporation organises trade missions with the dti to foreign investment destinations to encourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the province and encouraging domestic exporters to access the opportunities provided by the export market.
ECDC aims to fulfill its mandate as an economic development institution by undertaking activities which support economic growth:
- Supporting existing businesses
- Creating new opportunities for new enterprises
- Growing and sustaining existing and developing new markets
- Improving access to enterprise finance
- Ensuring that skills, infrastructure and policies support business development
ECDC also has a particular focus on SMMEs by encouraging small business development and providing them with finance through various loan facilities to ensure their viability.
The corporation’s product offering is organised around the following business units:
1. Enterprise finance that allows for innovative access to business loans for SMMEs. The loan facilities range from R1 000 to R15-million and micro finance ranging from R1 000 to R10 000.
2. Enterprise development supports emerging businesses through an accredited network of professional service providers.
3. Export promotion facilitates the
expansion of Eastern Cape companies into global markets.
4. Investment promotion provides professional support for foreign and domestic investment into the province.
5. Project development does business planning and establishes pilot projects which are sustainable and strategic with a view to stimulating economic growth.
6. Spatial and rural programmes aim to assist in the implementation of integrated spatial planning that focuses on strategic economic clusters and sectors in the Eastern Cape with specific focus in the former Transkei.
7. Properties unit has a large portfolio of residential and industrial property in marginalised areas.
The Eastern Cape government envisages a province which is devoid of past inequalities, unified through integrated and sustainable economic, social and cultural development, thus providing an acceptable quality of life for its entire people in the context of a united, non racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
As a Development Finance Institution (DFI), ECDC is driven by its mission statement that aims to positively contribute to government’s development objectives for the province and to overcome the constraints of poverty, unemployment, inequality, under-development and apartheid inheritance.
For more information contact Mr Nkosana Sifumba at the ECDC on +27 43 704 5600 or email info@ecdc.co.za
