This morning, the Automotive Industry Development Centre – Eastern Cape (AIDC-EC) held its 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the side-lines of the South African Automotive Week event in Kyalami, Gauteng. The automotive industry, globally, is gathering in Gauteng to deliberate on the future of the industry and the AIDC-EC is representing the province in these deliberations.
The AIDC-EC, an entity of the Provincial Government of the Eastern Cape province is mandated to support the automotive industry in the province, arguably the most important industry in the economy of the Eastern Cape.
In its AGM this morning, the AIDC-EC shared with key invited stakeholders its annual results for 2022, its performance, the state of its governance and presented its plans going forward. In its presentation, it highlighted the following:
• That it has received unqualified audit opinion consistently for the past 18 years, which demonstrates the highest levels of compliance by a State-Owned Entity.
• That it had achieved 94.2% of its Key Performance Indicators at the end of financial year 2022.
• That it had supported 35 component suppliers with competitiveness improvement programmes, which are critical in them servicing contracts with the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
• The AIDC-EC further reported that the supported suppliers have been able to sustain about 2470 jobs in the province.
At its AGM, the AIDC-EC also presented its plans going forward, most of which centred around creating more real and sustainable partnerships with OEMs in the Eastern Cape (VW, MBSA, Isuzu, Ford, etc.) and those outside the province. Plans that would sustain the industry in the Eastern Cape include:
• Assisting national government to lobby for favourable investment in infrastructure to ease the cost of doing business in the province
• Enhancing and improving the engineering skills offering by the institutions of higher learning (Universities and TVET Colleges) in our province
• Reach out to more suppliers in the province for competitiveness improvement
• Support SMMEs in the aftermarket sector to create value and more sustainable jobs across the province, and beyond Metropolitan areas
• Work closely with OEMs, Naacam and Naamsa to mobilise for more investments into the province.
The AIDC-EC reiterated the importance of holding its strong partnerships with OEMs, suppliers and SOEs to realise the growth and maintenance of the industry and in the Eastern Cape. It also thanked the Provincial Government and the ECDC for its overwhelming support in the past years, however also expressing that more still needs to be done to grow the economy of the province.
