23 Feb 2006

THE Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry believes that the call for a moratorium on land sales to foreigners should have excluded land already zoned for industrial and commercial purposes.

Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber, said she could understand sensitivities about residential and agricultural land but there should be no impediments in the way of job-creating investments in commerce and industry. 

"If we are to achieve the Government's target of economic growth at the rate of six percent a year we need all the help we can get. We certainly don't want to create new hoops for foreign investors to jump through."

She pointed out that when established industrial countries were looking at setting up overseas plants they had many options and some countries went out of their way to attract industry with special tax incentives and promises to reduce red tape.

"Globalisation means that we live in a competitive world and we should be looking at new ways to attract commerce and industry not come up with ideas that could make us less competitive."

She said it would be a simple matter to exclude land already zoned for business such as the Coega industrial area in the Eastern Cape. "It is vital that projects like these succeed and we should be doing all in our power to reassure potential investors."

Calls for moratoriums did nothing for business confidence. Instead they created doubts and uncertainty and that might be just enough to make international business look elsewhere. "There are already concerns about our liberal labour legislation, electricity supplies and increasing BEE requirements. I don't believe we should be adding to that list," Ms Myburgh said.