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The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Parks Tau has described the Northern Cape as strategically placed to be South Africa's next growth region.

He was addressing the second day of the Northern Cape Investment and Jobs Conference hosted at the Mittah Seperepere International Convention Centre in Kimberly.

The three-day conference aims to serve as a catalyst to align government, business and development partners around a shared programme to unlock large scale investment, accelerate industrial development and sustainable job creation.

Addressing delegates, Tau said the race for green hydrogen is no longer speculative, governments and corporations across Europe, Asia and the Americas are committing billions to secure supply chains.

“The Northern Cape sits at the intersection of all three: namely clean energy, critical minerals and green hydrogen. Certainly, this province has the land, the sun and the wind to become one of Africa's pre-eminent renewable energy production zones. Through Boegoebaai and the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy, it has the infrastructure anchor to build a hydrogen economy of genuine scale. These are live policies and programmes with government commitment and investor interest behind them,” he said.

He told the conference that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) has structured its approach to industrialisation around three organising themes, namely: Decarbonisation, Diversification, and Digitalisation and these 3Ds align almost precisely with where the Northern Cape's competitive advantages lie.

He concluded: “As an outcome of our G20/B20 Presidency which was premised on the pillars of solidarity, equality and sustainable development, government and the private sector will be coming together to realise the Northern Cape’s potential and position it as South Africa’s next economic frontier.”
 

Issued by Department of Trade, Industry and Competition