South Africa: Heineken Plant to Help Gauteng Fight Poverty

	Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article Visit The Publisher's Site

BuaNews (Tshwane)

17 July 2008
Posted to the web 17 July 2008

Johannesburg

Dutch brewer Heineken's R7-billion brewery, which is being built in the Sedibeng District Municipality, will go a long way in helping the provincial government fight poverty and create more jobs.

According to the Gauteng Provincial Government, 225 permanent jobs are expected to be created once the brewery is up and running.

Heineken, the world's fourth largest brewer, will also invest heavily in the skills development of people in the area.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, MEC for Housing Paul Mashatile said the investment was one of the many catalytic projects the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (GEDA) is working on to grow and diversify the province's economy.

The GEDA had made possible several such investments over the past decade.

"Since 1997, GEDA has facilitated over R10 billion worth of investment into the Gauteng economy," said the MEC.

Mr Mashatile also announced that plans for the establishment of the Jewellery Manufacturing Precinct as part of the OR Tambo Industrial Development Zone were at advanced stages, with the business plan for the precinct have already been developed.

This will help give Gauteng a competitive edge in the downstream beneficiation of precious stones such as diamonds.

The strategies to boost the number of tourists visiting Gauteng were bearing fruit, said the MEC.

"International arrivals to Gauteng increased by more than 14.5 percent over the first nine months of 2007, compared to the same period in 2006.

"This put the total number of visitors received by Gauteng at 3.2 million, which is significantly higher than the 2.8 million visitors in the previous comparable period.

"Bed nights spent by international tourists in Gauteng increased by 1.2 million," said Mr Mashatile, adding that this reaffirmed that Gauteng was more than just a gateway to South Africa, but a visitor destination in its own right.

Read comments. Write your own.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Share this on: Facebook Digg Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Muti

Copyright © 2008 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >>

Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account

Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement.