20-06-2017
Wesgro is proud to announce that it has managed to secure R691 million in investment for the Western Cape during this financial year’s first quarter despite recent economic challenges.
In three months Wesgro’s Investment Promotion Unit (IPU) has undertaken three international investment promotion missions and secured four major investments. These investments will contribute R591 million to the Cape’s economy and create 370 jobs in the process.
The agency’s Agriculture Investment Unit (AIU) has also secured a local investment for the province valued at R100 million and is expected to create 450 jobs in the agri-processing sector which has been identified as a key priority sector within the Western Cape Government's Project Khulisa strategy.
With a number of key investments still in the pipeline the IPU and AIU intend on embarking on missions to China, Hong Kong and Canada as well as the US and UK respectively next quarter to promote investment opportunities in the province.
In the meantime these units will also focus on supporting the growth of local businesses through the provision of 'aftercare' services via the unit's business retention and expansion portfolio.
“We invest billions of rands into infrastructure development each year, and continue to work even harder to proactively engage investors on the wealth of opportunities available to them in Cape Town. These results prove that we have a lot to offer the world and show that Cape Town is open for business,” said City of Cape Town Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille.
“The provincial economy has become even stronger, despite the drought, economic and political shocks. We’ve seen investment sustained and good performance in Project Khulisa’s focus sectors, specifically in tourism and agri-processing,” added Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde.
“These investment figures suggest that our efforts to offset the effects of the recent string of credit ratings downgrades are literally paying off. We have a series of initiatives on the way to maintain this momentum, including an engagement with Mayor de Lille and Minister Winde on the Cape’s post-downgrade plan of action scheduled later this week and in the second half of this year will launch the Cape Investor Centre in collaboration with the dti's InvestSA initiative,” concluded Wesgro CEO Tim Harris.
