Cape Town - The Western Cape is set to benefit from a R1.3billion investment in a manufacturing facility in Atlantis by Czech firm, Pegas Nonwovens, which will create employment opportunities for 200 people in the area.
The announcement was made in Cape Town on Wednesday by Premier Helen Zille, Mayor Patricia De Lille and Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde.
The Atlantis investment will be the largest single manufacturing foreign direct investment that Wesgro and Into SA have secured since 2011. Construction is set to begin in September for completion by next year.
The Pegas Nonwoven Atlantis facility will manufacture non-woven, polypropylene and polyethylene-based textiles, used in disposable hygiene products such as baby diapers, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products, among others.
The facility will be the primary supplier of these materials to Cape Town-based Kimberly Clarke and other companies, including Procter & Gamble.
Pegas Nonwovens is the largest producer of spunmelt nonwovens in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with 570 employees globally and two major production facilities in the Czech Republic and Egypt.
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Franticek Rezac, the chief executive of Pegas Nonwovens, said the Western Cape was a natural choice for the firm when it considered its African expansion.
“Its world class infrastructure and access to the rest of the continent provided us with a profitable opportunity we could not pass on.”
Atlantis is envisioned as a Special Economic Zone to support manufacturing mainly for the renewable energy sector and, in particular, independent power producers in the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme.
Zille said: “Our goal is to encourage investment with the least possible red tape. We are launching the Cape Investor centre later this year as a one-stop-shop for investors to complete local, provincial and national regulatory processes, under the professional guidance of a single relationship manager. We are also targeting R1bn in economic savings and benefits by 2019 through our Red Tape Reduction Unit.”
Winde said: “We’ve seen significant foreign investment into our region’s green tech sector. In 2013, Hisense opened its R800 million plant in Atlantis, creating 1 000 jobs. Jinko Solar, one of the Chinese companies we engaged with during our official visit to that country in 2015, opened a photovoltaic manufacturing firm in Cape Town, which added 120 jobs."
De Lille said in December last year, FDI Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times, ranked Cape Town as 21st in the world on the list of cities with the best foreign direct investment strategies.