A key mandate of the Durban Investment Promotion team inside eThekwini Municipality is to attract and facilitate new and expansion investments into Durban, while retaining existing businesses. A prerequisite for the attraction and retention of fixed investment is a conducive and positively decisive investment environment.
The eThekwini Municipality is in the process of finalizing an 'Investment Dashboard', which lists a number of flagship investment projects across the broader Durban area. The Durban Investment Dashboard (DID) is an information and management tool on catalytic economic development projects prepared by the Economic Development and Investment Promotion Unit. The DID is already, and will continue to assist decision making plus the implementation of catalyst projects that lead to significant investment growth and job creation. The intended audience for the dashboard includes the city leadership such as the mayor, deputy mayor, city manager, deputy city managers, and the broader executive. It will also serve to inform business, public sector and other stakeholders on key aspects of major projects, often via a Durban investment marketing perspective. This should therefore add to business and investor confidence levels via a more virtuous cycle. The DID comprises an extensive, and often complex, range of project information which will aid in better co-ordinated and integrated municipal planning, infrastructure provision, and decision making on both the projects themselves, plus their catchment areas.
It is therefore envisaged that the DID will assist the municipality and business leadership in making informed decisions on prioritisation, resource allocation, and the unblocking of challenges hindering
investment. The information currently contained in the Dashboard, which includes GIS (Geographical Information Systems) data layers, was originally sourced from Durban Investment Promotion's (DIPA's) Flagship Projects Table, and is now significantly enhanced via innumerable engagements with various departments, agencies, and entities. This included investor business plans, engagement with municipal departments, socio-economic impact assessments, as well as developers. Sincere gratitude
must be expressed to the external consultant team known as TPI, whose tireless efforts made quantum improvements.
The final DID product will be web-based/accessed, and linked to GIS so that the projects can continue to be represented and assessed spatially. In addition to the above, the eThekwini Municipality's Best
Practice City Commission Review [2014] has commissioned a survey amongst Durban's medium and large businesses to measure the municipality's performance against a number of factors that influence the conduciveness of the investment environment.
Thesurvey, conducted by Lindon Corporation, hopes to reveal those factors that provide Durban with a competitive edge and those that require improvement

Companies that wish to participate in the survey may contact Lindon Corporation at 031 904 1050 or info@lindon.co.za.