1997 – 2003
Department of Finance and Economic Affairs (DFEA), Gauteng, conducts an economic impact study and devises the 1997 Trade and Industrial Strategy (TIS). The study identifies a new, alternative economic trajectory for the province focusing on financial and business services, smart industries, high value added manufacturing and tourism.

The DFEA identifies eleven mega-projects with the potential to make a significant impact on the local economy through a high-level, integrated action plan, called the Strategic Economic Infrastructure Investment Programme (SEIIP), now known as Blue IQ. These are: Gautrain, Dinokeng, Cradle of Humankind, Wadeville Alrode Industrial Corridor, City Deep Roads Infrastructure, JIA IDZ. The Innovation Hub, Gauteng Automotive Cluster, Kliptown, Newtown and Constitution Hill.

2003
The need to formalise Blue IQ becomes evident and sets the scene for a longer-term intervention. The Gauteng Legislature passes the Blue IQ Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd Act of 2003, which legally establishes Blue IQ as a provincial public entity, operating as a limited private company.

This historic event makes Blue IQ a juristic entity for the first time, laying the legal ground work for the Gauteng Provincial Government to be able to attract more development funding and private sector investment into Blue IQ projects. The projects become subsidiaries of Blue IQ.

2004
Three projects of Blue IQ now fall within the ambit of the Private Public Partnership (PPP) unit of the Department of Finance and Economic Affairs: Dinokeng, The Cradle of Humankind and Gautrain. This is because the projects were designed according to the strategic objectives of the National Treasury Public-Private-Partnership brief and it is important for these projects to fall within government structures and not within Blue IQ as a public enterprise.

2005
The Kliptown Urban Revitalisation project and the Wadeville / Alrode Road project are successfully concluded by Blue IQ and are transferred to the relevant local government structures for management.

Blue IQ was founded in 2001 as part of the Department of Finance and Economic Affairs’ (DFEA) Infrastructure Development Programme. The Gauteng Legislature confirmed Blue IQ’s institutional beginnings as an infrastructure investment vehicle in October 2003. The new Blue IQ thus operates as an Investment Holding Company.

Blue IQ introduced a programme of DFEA-initiated mega-infrastructure projects to the value of R3,2bn from 2001 to 2004. In the last few years Blue IQ has successfully established itself as an important player in the Gauteng economy and has delivered on the defining feature of its mandate – there is no doubt that the company has impacted positively on the trajectory and make-up of the Gauteng economy.

To date the eleven projects identified at the inception of Blue IQ have largely delivered on their original mandates. However, this did not include commercialisation as envisaged by the Blue IQ Investment Holdings Act of 2003.

Rather than have Blue IQ Investment Holdings exit all the projects and cease to exist, using the framework provided by the Act, it was decided that Blue IQ Investment Holdings should corporatise. This allowed for the projects and Blue IQ Investment Holdings to realign their strategies, so that they become sustainable, commercially viable entities.