The plant could mean the development of an industrial park focused on trade between South Africa and Belarus.

In an early 2010 boost for the Eastern Cape, an agreement between an Eastern European industrial nation and South African organisations is set to result in a tractor factory being built at Coega.

And the plant could be the start of an industrial park concentrating on trade between South Africa and Belarus, the country’s Pretoria-based top trade consul Aleksei Lesnoy said at the weekend.

During a visit to Mandela Bay – and a close inspection of likely sites at the Coega industrial development zone – Lesnoy said the tractor plant investment would be “several million dollars” and would create up to 150 direct jobs after construction.

It will assemble the tractors, which are branded “Belarus”.

Lesnoy and other partners in the venture said plans were for 700 tractors of various sizes – about 10% of the South African market – to be built in the first full year of production, likely to be 2012.

Using the recently opened deep-water port of Ngqura as a transshipment point, the Coega-built tractors would also be distributed to other parts of Africa.

In the meanwhile, agreements with the Coega Development Corporation, venture partners – including two empowerment companies – and the government would be “finalised” with a view to beginning construction of the plant in 2011, Lesnoy said.

The partners – the first being the Minsk Tractor Works, which produces Belarus tractors – will also include Port Elizabeth specialist engineering company Ex-Es, headquartered in Newton Park.

Managing director Sadkick Davids said at the weekend announcement of the plan that the involvement of the empowerment company – established in 2004 – would include making and installing assembly line equipment, as well as being a partner in the entire operation. “It is a great opportunity for the company – which already has contracts with Volkswagen, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz in East London, and Dorbyl – to expand and develop.”

A second partner is Variquip, based in Pietermaritzburg, which is already setting up a sales distribution operation for Belarus tractors.

“We are already testing and exhibiting Belarus tractors in South Africa,” said managing director Sandy Clouston. “We have been greatly impressed by the CDC staff and municipal officials we have been involved with in Mandela Bay and are looking forward to the successful completion of all the preliminary work later this year.”

The fourth partner is empowerment organisation Agriculture Strategic Investments in Gauteng.

Mandela Bay economic development, tourism and agriculture portfolio head Anne-Marie van Jaarsveld called the announcement “great news”.