The province has a reputation for its ability to apply knowledge and new ideas.

Major international ICT companies have identified with Gauteng’s spirit of creativity and intelligence to make the province their African base

It may be the smallest of South Africa’s nine provinces, but Gauteng is an economic powerhouse. Having shifted its financial focus to sophisticated sectors like information technology (IT), telecommunications and industrial research and development (R&D), Gauteng is increasingly becoming the nation’s technological hub.

Appropriately dubbed the “smart province”, it is home to two thirds of the nation’s ICT sector. Companies like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and IBM all have headquarters there, and others are following suit. Gauteng’s Provincial Government maintains that it is especially attractive because it has low operating costs and lower capital investment requirements, allowing the region to adopt new technologies quickly.

With an ideal location, Gauteng has been more than prepared to join the digital revolution and be molded into a South African Silicon Valley. High tech plants have easy access to the Johannesburg International Airport for imports and exports, there’s an abundance of land for construction and factories are used for IT plants. Goolam Ballim, Chief Economist at Standard Bank, says, “Gauteng is knowledge-centric, technology-centric and at the forefront of the South African economy.”

Gauteng has forged ahead because it has the ability to innovate and apply knowledge to create new products and services. Local high-tech companies are coming up with competitive software solutions, and the province has strong IT, communications and transport infrastructure, not to mention skilled and well-informed technical people. Information is indeed one of Gauteng’s strategic resources, as seen with its Blue IQ program, a multi-million dollar initiative set to develop smart industries, tourism and high value-added manufacturing.

High-tech Gauteng is on its way to becoming a South African Silicon Valley.

Cultural industries likewise have great potential to encourage or to be sources of innovation and technological development. According to the Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA), business tourism contributes $2.9 billion to the South African economy. To accommodate the influx of people, the province has high-tech telecommunications infrastructures linking the country to the rest of the world, as well as the highest number of internet service providers. Business travelers have world-class access to internet through local providers while hotels offer digital telephone lines capable of data transfer.

As the information, communications and the entertainment industries have all experienced a digitalization of content, the film industry is no different. The Gauteng Film Office (GFO) markets new productions in the province, which is truly an up-and-coming film site. It offers lower production costs, highly skilled technicians, world-class facilities, well-established and equipped post-production digital facilities and graphics, audio and animation houses.

Gambling is also reaping the rewards of ICT. With a growing income and six casinos open for business, the sector is developing its technology at such a pace it’s difficult for regulators to stay abreast.