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A file picture of Toyota's Corrolla production line at its auto plant in Prospecton, south of Durban. According to local indsutry expert... Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi

With our port, airport and advanced infrastructure, why does it still feel as though Durban repeatedly loses out to Joburg when it comes to attracting big investments?

With our sun, sand, sea and mountains, why is Cape Town still the more desirable place in which to live or holiday?

And why are we still experiencing an exodus of the young and educated to Joburg?

These and many other questions were at the centre of debate at the Economic Outlook 2012 seminar hosted by the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science and Business Day at Durban’s ICC last week.

While most firms’ loyalties do not lie with Durban, those businesses that are here have much insight to offer. One company that stands out is motor manufacturing giant Toyota, which has invested more than R8 billion in Prospecton.

Present at the discussions was Dr Johan van Zyl, president and CEO of Toyota SA and deputy chief officer for the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

“Many people ask, ‘Why don’t you relocate?’ and I can never come up with an answer,” he said.

“Durban is still the best located port for doing business in Johannesburg. However, we need to look at improving inland and outbound logistics. A vehicle that has to go from Durban to Nigeria may have to go through Europe first. To get to Ethiopia, we may have to go through Somalia.”

Van Zyl said the local plant exported about 85 000 vehicles last year. “Durban has the competitive edge, but Africa is developing – Mozambique, for example, at an incredible rate. Durban needs to keep ahead of the competition.”

His solution? Get big projects on the table.

“China is building ports they don’t even know when they will use. If return on investment is the line of thinking we may never see the infrastructure. We need to plan infrastructure for the next 50 years,” said Van Zyl.

A calamity, he said, was that eight years ago Toyota proposed a supply park plan for Durban.

“We had lined up suppliers – at one stage 17 of them – but were not given the go-ahead. In the meantime a new park was established in the Eastern Cape. The opportunity is gone,” he said.

When you consider that about 45 percent of the company’s parts come out of Durban, one has to wonder why the city is not a bigger base for manufacturing.

Former eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba said big projects or even creating clusters around them were hampered by small-town mentality.

“In my 17 years of office I have experienced… objections to change and what would have been job generating ventures. One example, Anant Singh’s film city, which was a six-phase plan for the beachfront that got tied up in court.”

Mlaba said another problem in the city was the competition between race groups.

“Durban has always been multi-sectional; we are not united in doing one thing. Entrenched divisions in Durban are holding people back,” he said.

However, Business Day editor Peter Bruce took a dig at the city’s well-documented debacle of street naming that often took centre stage instead. He said the question one ought to be asking was whether the city was creating an environment to attract young intellectuals and entrepreneurs. Bruce suggested that Durban often lost to Joburg because of the way in which the playing field was organised.

Van Zyl said: “Durban as a brand is not strong enough to simply say ‘come and invest in Durban’. What it needs to attract investors are big projects.”

Abdullah Verachia, strategist and head of the India-Africa Business Network at Gibs, agreed. “Move away from the strong focus on tourism,” he said.

“Many successful economies are hampered by a fixation on… one area (tourism in Durban’s case) and therein impacting on business investment in other sectors.

“Durban has defined itself as a tourism destination of choice and this should be maintained rather than continually focused on. This should not become Durban’s Achille’s heel, wherein companies and foreign investors lump the city solely as a tourist market rather than an investment destination of choice,” said Verachia.

“In an ever-changing world, leading cities have to define their strategic competitive advantages and leverage these. Ask what it is that positions Durban favourably in the international world,” he said.

“Durban would do well to create clusters of competitiveness… An automotive supplier park should have been pursued a long time ago. This would have resulted in potential investment from other automotive manufacturers as well as sizeable investment from automotive suppliers. Clustering results in a cost-competitive advantage has proven to better position cities as nodes for investment,” Verachia said.

“Create an environment that will make it conducive for multinational companies and their staff to want to work, live and do business in. The leading cities of the world are safe, clean, and enjoyable to live in. Identify three or four key sectors for development and develop these areas,” he said.