Trade & Investment Desk
The Trade and Investment Desk serves as a catalyst positioning Nelson Mandela Bay as a destination of choice on the African continent.
The desk complements the Chamber's leading initiatives to position the Bay of Opportunity as a compelling place to trade, invest, live, work, and visit.
The desk acts as a trusted repository of data, insights, and analytics for local businesses and potential investors. Members can access a wide range of evidence-based insights, including:
- Up-to-date economic overviews: The desk tracks sub-metropolitan to international economic performance indicators and provides detailed and interpreted trend analysis to guide business decisions;
- Logistics and infrastructure performance: The desk regularly monitors and analyses the Bay’s sea- and air-port performance data within a broader national/international context;
- Sector-specific insights: The desk helps to unpack industrial data, such region-specific automotive sector export and production performance and employment data;
- Global and regional trade flows: Through expanding knowledge networks and toolkits, the desk draws on data from leading databases and experts to map out market opportunities;
- Business environment diagnostics: The desk helps to maintain records of localised systemic challenges, red tape bottlenecks, and regulatory delays to advise the chamber and its members on facilitation and workaround strategies; and
- Local business and sector intelligence: Priority industries, catalytic investments in development, related opportunities, and the Bay’s value proposition and competitive advantages.
The desk’s support services also includes:
- Investor-specific "soft landing" support: providing personalised administrative and technical support in accordance with the proposed investment’s lifecycle. For projects facing excessive municipal and governmental delays, political-administrative standstills, or approvals backlogs, the desk helps to actively intervene and escalate these obstacles to secure quicker resolution.
- Conducting aftercare site visits to existing operations and meet with business management teams to detect ongoing concerns, proactively helping our members to mitigate and minimise risks in their operating environment.
- Integrating new or expanding projects and operations with the eleven geographic business clusters supported by the chamber, as well as the chamber’s Business Helpdesk and Skills Desk, and various dedicated and volunteer-led Task Teams (such as those focusing on Electricity, Water, Transport & Logistics, and Business Enablement).
For more information on the desk's services, resources, and publications, visit the Chamber's dedicated
Bay of Opportunity website.
THE TRADE & INVESTMENT DESK IS IN PROUD PARTNERSHIP WITH:
