The Garden Route and Klein Karoo areas of the Southern Cape provide one of the most exciting investment destinations in South Africa. Canny international and local investors, both private and institutional, who put their money into the region only a few years ago have realised handsome returns and not a few small fortunes.
Growth up to now has been powered by tourism and property, but as transformation reshapes the socio-economic profile of the region, municipal authorities find themselves faced with new priorities and responsibilities. Suddenly, outside investment in sustainable local economic development (LED) is an imperative.
The five major municipalities in the area, under the umbrella district council of Eden, have been quick to realise this. All of them have introduced dynamic LED programmes over the past 12 months and some of these projects are highlighted in the pages that follow.
A number of these projects require capital expenditure way above their respective municipal budgets and the only source of additional revenues is investment in commercial and industrial enterprise. And that comes only through providing a conducive environment and incentives for such investors.
The towns of the Garden Route and Klein Karoo are blessed with a wide variety of natural attractions, and each of them have well-developed infrastructures with extraordinary investment opportunities for prescient investors. To highlight current development trends in the region, the Southern Cape Business Chamber introduced the Business Prospects Conference last year, which was held at George.

Full details of the conference and bookings can be found on Page 13

This year Knysna is hosting the conference, with the support of the Western Cape provincial Department of Business Promotion and Tourism, Wesgro, the South Cape Business Centre and the municipalities themselves.
Speakers from each of the towns, plus the districts of Kannaland and Langeberg, will discuss growth prospects in their areas, with a focus on economic development and their vision for the future. Key speakers will include Professor Wolfgang Thomas, former chief economist of Wesgro and now attached to the University of Stellenbosch Business School; and Professor E Van Biljon of the PE Technikon.

by Peter Schafer