The R5.8 billion Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme (MCEP) will be launched by Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Rob Davies on Tuesday, 15 May at Cape Town Lodge, in Cape Town at 08h30.
The MCEP is a new incentive and a key component of the Industrial Policy Action Plan 3. The Minister of Finance indicated during the Budget Speech that a sum of R5.8 billion will be made available over the three year Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period for this programme.
Minister Davies says that the MCEP seeks to generate much greater confidence amongst manufacturers to invest now and to see out the current period of significant economic uncertainty and emerge much more competitively out of it.
'The main aim of the MCEP was to encourage manufacturers in a broad range of sectors to invest and raise competitiveness. The MCEP will be deployed towards upgrading the competitiveness of relatively labour-intensive and value-adding manufacturing sectors impacted by the currency, the global economic crisis and electricity cost escalations. The programme will be sufficiently flexible to support the specific competitiveness upgrading measures jointly identified in our sector strategies as being required, said Davies.
The Department of Trade and Industry earlier has published the draft programme guidelines for the proposed Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme (MCEP) incentive for public comment. The main objective of the programme is to improve the competitiveness of the South African manufacturing industry.
"The MCEP will also aim to address the general ability of the South African manufacturing industry to compete against imports and to compete globally against its counterparts in other export markets.It is proposed that the MCEP incentive will be available not only to entities engaged in manufacturing, but also to engineering services and other agencies servicing and supporting the manufacturing industry," added Davies.
The MCEP incentive will be paid in the form of a cost-sharing cash grant and the maximum grant payable under the programme will be a percentage of the applicant’s average manufacturing value-add achieved for a specific period.
Minister Davies concluded that the process of developing the MCEP has been a consultative one with members of the industry.
Members of the media are invited to cover the event.
RSVPs should be directed to Bongani Lukhele:
Tel: 012 394-1643
Cell: 074 299 8512
E-mail: BLukhele@thedti.gov.za
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
