MANUFACTURING, investment and tourism in the Eastern Cape will be boosted by infrastructural developments and investment incentives highlighted in the 2001 medium term budget presented by South African finance minister Trevor Manuel to parliament on October 30, 2001. A planned “substantial rehabilitation and realignment of the east coast road linking East London, Umtata, Port St Johns and the Port Shepstone-Durban highway” will boost tourism to the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape. Manuel also recommitted government to backing the industrial development zones at Coega near Port Elizabeth and on East London’s West Bank. These developments will create investment opportunities, according to Manuel. “In some of these projects private investment will provide funding through direct equity participation or public-private partnerships. In other cases, funds will be raised against the balance sheets of our public corporations.” As an incentive to investors, Manuel announced that government had allocated R3-billion over the next three years for an investment tax incentive to encourage strategic projects, primarily in the manufacturing sector. The incentive is expected to help promote investment in both the Eastern Cape’s industrial development zones – each of which is a duty-free processing areas adjacent to a port. Qualifying criteria include a minimum investment of R50-million, and that the project does not displace more than a minimum level of existing jobs, that it is commercially viable, and that it does not benefit from certain other incentives. It may also not be part of an industrial participation project. Investments meeting these criteria will qualify for either a 50 or 100 per cent tax allowance.