SPEDU, SPTC pair up to attract investors
Onalenna Kelebeile | Wednesday August 16, 2017 16:32
The Council has several pieces of unutilised yet economically viable land that it does not have money to develop, hence strategic partners like SPEDU can develop and ensure that assessment to identify serious investors is done.
Such pieces of land include Makhubu Club, Golf Course, Area 1, stadium and the show ground among others. Town clerk, Godimo Garegope said during the signing ceremony that these pieces of land can attract investors and SPEDU would come in as a vehicle to facilitate and speed up the process.
“We are handing over these pieces of land to SPEDU to market them to potential investors. The procedure with government is that we publicise in the Government Gazette and that is a lengthy process because some potential investors would present huge documents yet sometimes without a financial muscle.
The tedious and lengthy process even ends up throwing out serious investors. We believe that serious investors can take the SPEDU route,” he said. He was happy that all council structures have approved the idea of handing the pieces of land to SPEDU to speed up the process and attracting investors and hoped for multiplied benefits for the town of Selebi-Phikwe from this agreement. To emphasise their partnership, SPEDU and SPTC have already travelled together to South Africa and Nigeria as a joint force in marketing the town as a viable investment destination.
SPEDU CEO, Dr Mokubung Mokubung said it was with humility that the two entities solidify their marriage. He said the MoU is a service land agreement. He said it is an action sheet that they will follow through, monitor and evaluate. He added that the agreement is for five years after which it will be revised.
“We are invigorating the relationship between the two entities. Getting the economy of the SPEDU region on its feet has been a challenge, hence the need to attract investors here. We cannot afford to see unutilised land and property being vandalised instead of being utilised for economic purposes,” he said.
Mokubung said there are collaborative projects that SPEDU and SPTC are already working on and said they will soon sign another MoU for a new company that will manufacture aircraft parts to set up here. He added that some investors have already expressed interests to develop some areas such as the golf course.