The new incentives, details of which were disclosed by Mpahlwa on 4th July, are targeted at stimulating growth, employment and broadening participation, and will be introduced later this month.

The EIP will initially comprise of the Manufacturing Investment Programme and the Tourism Support Programme. The programme will be accessible to both local and foreign owned entities wishing to locate their operations in South Africa.

Speaking at the function, Mpahlwa explained that the EIP provides an investment grant of between 15% and 30% towards qualifying investment in plant, machinery and equipment and customised vehicles required for establishing new or expanding existing production facilities or upgrading production capability in existing clothing and textiles operations.

According to the minister, a separate selection criterion has been developed to ensure that support for tourism projects achieves objectives for employment creation and promotes tourism enterprise activities in new areas outside the areas that already have an established tourism industry.

Cape Town, Johannesburg and Ethekwini metropolitan areas for example, are not prioritised for tourism incentive support, as they already have a critical mass of tourism product. However, projects locating in marginalised areas within these metropolitan areas will be eligible to apply.

The introduction of the Enterprise Investment Programme (EIP) is part of an implementation plan arising from the broader incentives review process, which includes modifying certain incentives, benchmarking the incentive practices in other economies, as well as the introduction of new incentives to promote investment, growth and employment creation.

The EIP is aligned to the National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF), which was approved by Cabinet last year.

Consultation workshops on the EIP were also held to ensure policy coherence with the activities of provincial economic development departments and their investment agencies; the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), National Empowerment Fund (NEF), Khula; as well as commercial banks, entrepreneurs and various industry associations and export councils.