22-06-2017
Today Wesgro hosted an engagement with various stakeholders to set out the steps Cape Town and the Western Cape are taking to maintain investor confidence in South Africa and the region, following the recent credit ratings downgrades.
It was led by City of Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille and Western Cape Economic Opportunities Minister Alan Winde, and featured key insights and strategies from Wesgro and Accelerate Cape Town.
Attendees directly engaged these economic leaders and were able to discuss some of the challenges and successes they have experienced, contributing to the province’s plan to support local businesses and attract investment in order to boost the economy.
Wesgro CEO Tim Harris said: "Considering recent economic developments within South Africa, we felt that it was crucial to unite stakeholders and craft a strategy that would maintain investor confidence in the Cape and the greater South African economy. During the engagement we set out five ways we believe Cape Town and the Western Cape will be able to attract and retain investors, following the recent credit ratings downgrades."
The five ways that were mentioned are as follows:
- 1. An aligned communications plan across the Western Cape to counter negative perceptions about investing the region.
- 2. Building Cape Town's brand as a world-class investment destination, through the City of Cape Town's 'Invest Cape Town' initiative.
- 3. More than 70 tourism, trade and investment promotion missions abroad to be conducted by Wesgro in 2017 - selling the region as an investment destination, and helping local businesses access international markets.
- 4. Doubling-down on Project Khulisa, the Western Cape Government’s economic strategy, to ensure policy certainty.
- 5. Launch a new Investor Centre, in conjunction with the DTI's InvestSA initiative, as a collaborative one-stop shop for investors into Cape Town and the Western Cape.
“The City of Cape Town will continue attracting investment by creating an enabling environment for job creation and economic growth. We will do this through investing R6.8 billion in the next year on infrastructure development through road upgrades, electricity projects and expanding our broadband roll out amongst others. Key to this work is a strong, sustained focus on clean, corruption-free governance as these are the primary factors which investors consider when choosing where to invest their money. Just yesterday the Auditor-General announced that Cape Town was the only municipality in the country to achieve a clean audit for the 2015/16 financial year.
“Economic growth is at the top of my agenda and we will work relentlessly to ensure that we do what we can to grow the economy and contribute towards job creation for the people of our great city. Through our Invest Cape Town brand initiative we are actively promoting Cape Town internationally as a forward-looking, globally competitive business city. We are going to the world to say we are more than just an iconic tourist city, we are open for business,” said Mayor De Lille.
“Despite the negative economic impact of national events, the Western Cape has continued to add jobs to the economy. We have the lowest narrow and broad unemployment rate. This is because we have a focussed approach to growing the economy through our Project Khulisa economic strategy, which is seeking to boost our tourism, agri-processing and oil and gas sectors. Along with these priority sectors, we are also driving the growth of the country’s green economy. The Western Cape is home to 60% of the country’s green project developers. In line with this focus, we selected securing an affordable and reliable energy supply as a game changer. Like energy, water is also critical for economic growth and we are continuing to look at solutions to our water shortage.
“We’re also committed to creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive, and our Red Tape Reduction Unit has assisted 6 000 businesses since it was launched in 2011. To ensure that our young people are able to take advantage of economic opportunities, we also selected skills as a game changer and we set a target of introducing 32 500 qualified apprentices into the labour market by 2019. Since last year, 7 500 young people successfully completed their work-place-based learning programmes in the occupations required by the priority growth sectors of the province.
“While challenging, the current economic situation offers opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs. The cost of imports will increase, and we’re also seeing a rise in demand for consumers wanting to know the full value chain of their products. These trends provide a space for local entrepreneurs to package their products with authentic stories being the unique selling point. We know the weakening rand will also make our tourism offering and our agri-processed exports more competitive,” added Minister Winde.
“By growing the regional economy through increased tourism, trade and investment, Cape Town and the Western Cape intends to help the South African economy recover from the negative impact of the credit ratings downgrades,” concluded Harris.
As the agency responsible for tourism, trade and investment promotion, Wesgro will do everything it can to inspire confidence in the Cape economy, so that we continue to attract high levels of investment which grows the economy and creates jobs.
