Government is planning to take its broader industrial development plans to poorer provinces and rural areas, with the trade and industry department yesterday unveiling a comprehensive policy document to promote industrial development in SA’s poorer regions.

Government plans to lower the cost of doing business in former homelands and other poor areas under drafts it will submit to the cabinet in the next few months.

Commercial property association Sapoa and various government departments have agreed to work together in finding solutions to problems facing the property industry.

The members of the new board of the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), the statutory body that regulates the estate agency industry, would be announced this week, the trade and industry department said yesterday.

The Tshwane metropolitan council has allocated 4ha of land in the Pretoria city centre for the construction of a R1bn office park to be known as the Mandela Development Corridor.