The spotlight will shine on a Cape Town based electronics company when the Department of Trade and Industry launches its Workplace Challenge (WPC) programme on Friday.
Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies will launch the 20th anniversary of the WPC at the premises of electronics manufacturing company, TraX Interconnect, located at Elfin Industrial Park.
“We are excited and grateful that we have been chosen from amongst hundreds of beneficiaries to host a national event to celebrate the successes of the programme. As a small company situated in the Western Cape, we are happy that the national spotlight will shine on us and put our company on the map of the country,” said TraX Interconnect Managing Director Daniel Dock.
The WPC programme is a two-year government intervention implemented amongst South African enterprises to improve their productivity and competitiveness, thereby ensuring sustainability of jobs.
Dock said while the company is halfway through the programme, there are quite a number of areas that have already shown discernible signs of improvement as a result of the company’s participation in the programme.
“For starters, this company would have gone under and closed shop if we had not enlisted for the programme. We have managed to save the company and 47 jobs by participating in the programme. We are operating in a highly-competitive marketplace even though we have managed to carve ourselves a niche in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCBs),” said Dock.
He said there was a handful of companies operating in the sector in South Africa because 80% of the PCBs in the world are manufactured in Taiwan, Japan and China.
About 95% of the PCBs used in the South African market are imported from China.
Minister Davies will be accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of Productivity South Africa Mothunye Mothiba.
The dti has been offering the WPC Programme to small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) since 1998, hence the campaign to celebrate the achievements of the programme and reflect on new opportunities to take the programme to the next level.
More than 1 000 companies have benefitted from the programme. - SAnews.gov.za
