Following the recent success of the third national Manufacturing Indaba event which took place at Emperors Palace, Ekurhuleni, on the 28th and 29th June, and the launch of the Small Business Indaba alongside it, the KwaZulu-Natal roadshow of the Manufacturing Indaba will be hosted in Durban on Tuesday 16th August 2016.

The one-day KZN provincial manufacturing event, taking place at the ICC in Durban, will host the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, who will address the province’s delegates, meet with the private sector manufacturers and discuss opportunities and challenges related to the province’s manufacturing industries.

With high-level government and industry role players speaking at the conference, the programme is filled with content specifically tailored to meet the needs of the province’s manufacturing businesses.

KwaZulu-Natal's manufacturing sector is the second largest in the country, following Gauteng Province. The sector is geared for exports, with nearly a third of South Africa's manufactured exports being produced in KwaZulu-Natal. The diversified nature of its exports is significant and the sector generates 20 percent of provincial employment. The largest manufacturing industries are the automobile and components sector, pulp and paper products, chemicals and petrochemicals, and food and beverages. The mining sector, which includes titanium dioxide, zircon along with iron, steel and ferroalloys, is particularly important.

There will be another two provincial Manufacturing Indabas taking place this year – the Manufacturing Indaba East Africa taking place in Nairobi, Kenya on the 8th September, the Eastern Cape event taking place in Port Elizabeth on the 18th October and the Western Cape Manufacturing Indaba taking place in Cape Town on the 8th November later this year.