Barriers lowered for tourism investment in St Lucia

THE South African government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with empowerment finance company, Khula Enterprise, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative to offer a comprehensive package of funding incentives for investmet in KwaZulu Natal's Greater St Lucia Wetland Park.(GSLWP). The package includes investment grants, concessionary finance, empowerment equity funds and training grant incentives. This comes just under three weeks before the October 31 deadline for submission of Expressions of Interest in the 14 sites identified for development of the GSLWP. Speaking at a press briefing held to announce the packages, Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin said by providing the package - each agency has a different mandate - government was lowering the barriers to tourism investments in the Natal park. "By making use of the incentives, there will be a substantial effect on investment returns. We have created a one-stop-shop to ensure those benefits flow quickly from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to the DBSA, IDC and Khula to the private sector investors." Erwin explained that the impact of these incentives was intended to lower the fixed overheads of tourism operations in the first three crucial years of their development by lowering debt repayment obligations in the short-term and over the life of the project. Concessionary loan financing, based partly on equity participation, is offered at up to 2% below prime interest rates with substantial grace periods and extended repayment plans. Erwin stressed that the incentive drive was aimed mainly at bringing residents of Maputaland into joint ventures and economic partnerships with investors from the commercial sector. He told TNN though that the investment incentive package was open to foreign investors, provided they met certain criteria, such as for example employing locals. (Adéle Mackenzie)