Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies
As part of its policy to support and develop small businesses, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) launched several new incentives in the last financial year, and recently reported on progress with uptake of incentives.
According to the latest Incentive Performance Report, the programmes include the Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme (MCEP), the Aquaculture Development and the Enhancement Programme (ADEP) and Incubator Support Programme (ISP), which were launched in 2012 by DTI Minister Rob Davies to promote competitiveness and ensure job retention in the manufacturing industry.
The incentive performance report also covers other incentives and is compiled according to incentive clusters, namely;
- The Broadening Participation Cluster (BPC) consists of the Black Business Supplier Database Programme (BBSDP), the Co-operative Incentive Scheme (CIS) and the ISP. These incentives seek to assist black small businesses as well as those owned by women, youth and people with disabilities.
- The Competitive Investment Cluster (CIC) assists with industrial competitiveness and is made up of Export Marketing and Investment Assistance (EMIA), the Sector Specific Assistance Scheme (SSAS), the Capital Projects Feasibility Programme (CPFP) and the MCEP.
- The Manufacturing Investment Cluster (MIC) encourages investment into the manu-facturing sector through the MIP, AIS, 12I Tax Allowance and the ADEP.
- The Services Investment Cluster (SIC) seeks to stimulate increased investment and growth in the services sector through the Business Process Services and the Film and Television Production Incentive programmes (FTPI).
- The Infrastructure Support Cluster (ISC) leverages investments into the South African economy by providing infrastructure critical to industrial development and focuses on the industrial development zones and includes the Critical Infrastructure Programme (CIP).
Says Davies in the incentives report: “The performance and uptake of the incentives programmes across provinces and sectors continue to grow…This is evident in the BPC, where the BBSDP supported 1 213 enterprises, while the CIS supported 314 co-operatives and the ISP 14 incubators.”
- For more information, go to www.thedti.gov.za