Private sector businesses yesterday agreed to create a platform to market the Buffalo City as an investment destination.

Taking the form of a website and a newsletter, Invest Buffalo City will essentially act as the first port of call for potential investors needing more information on the region.

Piet Bosch from Ikhwezi Abrasives said the website would provide useful information to potential investors wanting to set up a business plan for investing in the Buffalo City.

The website, which comprises web portal www.investbuffalocity.co.za, will therefore include the cost of electricity, rates, land, the size and draft of the harbour and contact numbers for the relevant stakeholders in the area.

“The idea of a private sector investment centre was mooted at the Buffalo City Future Search in January this year,” said Border Kei Chamber of Business spokesperson Lorna Schofield.

The companies involved in Invest Buffalo City are the Eastern Cape Development Agency, Buffalo City Development Agency, the East London Industrial Development Zone and Ikhwezi Abrasives. It is supported by the Buffalo City Municipality.

All the parties signed a memorandum of understanding at the chamber office yesterday to kickstart the process of allocating funding for the project.

Schofield said the project was not only aimed at benefitting the businesses involved in setting it up, but the entire Buffalo City economy.

A grant application will be lodged with the European Union-funded Local Competitiveness Fund this week, and the members want the project to be operational before the end of the year.

The fund is aimed at helping local partnerships to identify and capitalise on their locale’s competitive advantage through training, technical assistance and investment.

“In addition to the portal, a monthly e-newsletter will be sent to embassies and chambers of commerce worldwide to ensure they become aware of the information treasure that the portal will become,” Schofield said.

The project will be hosted and managed by the chamber of business.

Eastern Cape Development Corporation acting chief executive, Aneel Radhakrishna, said the website also had the potential to be plugged in with the corporation’s E-City project for IT graduates that was launched in East London this year.