About Us
What is ECDC?
- The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) is a dynamic economic development agency in the Eastern Cape.
- ECDC works with provincial and national ministries, municipalities, chambers, private business, communities and other development agencies to implement the economic development policies of the Eastern Cape provincial government.
- ECDC reports to an independent Board of Directors representing all stakeholders in the Eastern Cape. The directors are appointed by the Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism.
- ECDC was formed in 1996 by an Act of the Eastern Cape Legislature to plan, finance, co-ordinate, market, promote and implement the development of the Eastern Cape Province and all its people in the fields of industry, commerce, agriculture, transport and finance.
Our intentions are to:
- Attract new investors and position the Eastern Cape as the investment target of choice
- Stimulate exports
- Facilitate economic development
- Derive value from our assets, including our large property portfolio
- Build existing businesses
- Facilitate start-up businesses
ECDC’s head office is in East London, which is centrally situated in the province. We reach throughout the Eastern Cape via a network of regional offices in Port Elizabeth, King William’s Town, Queenstown, Butterworth and Mthatha. The Eastern Cape, a province of vast potential and world-class industrial sectors, is working steadily to overcome the severe underdevelopment it inherited from apartheid, particularly in its large rural areas.
Our priorities are to facilitate and support private sector development in the Eastern Cape through:
- Supporting existing business
- Creating opportunities for new business
- Growing and sustaining existing markets and developing new markets
- Improving access to enterprise finance
- Ensuring that skills, infrastructure and policies support business development
