Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has said he sees the film industry as a critical part of the country’s labour force.

The minister visited the Cape Town Film studios in Faure near Somerset West on Tuesday.

The mega-complex received a R16 million donation from government recently.

The state of the art building, worth R400 million, will act as a one-stop shop for film makers to shoot and edit their footage.

Davies said he is happy with the construction progress made so far.

He said the studio can only mean benefit South Africa.

“We’ve seen the emergence of a world class film stage facility in South Africa, it’ll be as good as anything anywhere in the world and I think that this is an important step forward for the film industry.”

He added the facility will generate a lot of industrial activity in all the auxiliary services that go along with film and stage work.

(Edited by Danya Philander)