The city’s manufacturing sector employed over 200 000 people last year. This equates to 69,5% of the provinces and 14% of the country’s manufacturing sector employment figure respectively.
The Manufacturing Indaba is currently underway at Cape Town International Convention Centre, with all the key role-players in one room.
The City of Cape Town assists the manufacturing industry by creating an enabling environment for the industry to grow as part of our broader plans to build an opportunity city.
‘We are making substantial investments in infrastructure to ensure that we have the required capacity to create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive in,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, Alderman James Vos.
The Manufacturing Indaba is a key event for industry players to network and engage.
‘We are pleased that the event will provide delegates with an update on the latest industry incentive, programmes and opportunities, and introduce them to national and provincial manufacturing executives as well as leading policymakers,’ said Alderman Vos.
In addition, a key focus will be on Business Matchmaking � a principle the City wholeheartedly supports and facilitates.
The City’s Enterprise and Supplier Development branch will also activate the Matchmaking Platform for the event, which enables conference attendees to engage with technical experts from the City and our Special Purpose Vehicles about City business processes.
This is part of our commitment to improving the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ environment in the City.
Matchmaking services include:
Red tape reduction facilitation
Business retention and expansion support
Advisory services � accessing talent pools
Investment facilitation
Accessing sector support
Through the matchmaking process, we are able to facilitate access to the right senior officials, sector body specialists, Wesgro and or national agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry.
Our largest and best-performing manufacturing sub-industry is in Food and Beverages.
A number of large companies in this sub-industry are located in Cape Town such as Pioneer Foods, Peninsular Beverages, Oceana, I&J, Bokomo and Freddy Hirsch, among others.
In total, there are 3 259 manufacturing companies located across 27 industrial areas in Cape Town.
The Brackenfell industrial hub has 278 houses manufacturing companies, making this the biggest manufacturing hub by the number of manufacturing companies. The Montague Gardens and Blackheath industrial areas have 272 and 260 manufacturing companies respectively. Together, these three areas are the largest manufacturing hubs in the metro.
Cape Town’s manufacturing sector is supported by several multi-national corporations, who have made the city their base and include:
Kimberly-Clark
Tellumat
Hisense
EXAR
GlaxoSmithKline
General Electric
K-way (clothing manufacturing)
The Cape region has many exciting opportunities to grow the manufacturing sectors as is in evidence by some key examples, which include:
The Cape region is the largest marine manufacturing centre in South Africa, generating over R2,3 billion in export revenue during 2018. (Source: Quantec, 2019);
The province is home to approximately 45% of boat builders. Ships, boats and floating structures were Cape Town’s 7th largest value export in 2018; and
The Atlantis Special Economic Zone for Green Technology is a dedicated greentech manufacturing hub. The hub is expected to grow the greentech sector in the Western Cape more broadly, and revitalise Atlantis as a key industrial node in the region.
We need to create quality products and export products for both the domestic and global economy.
According to the SA Furniture Initiative, South Africa imports furniture to the value of about R11 billion per annum, with R7 billion of that total imported from China. This represents a clear opportunity to invest, grow businesses and create jobs.
The City firmly believes that the manufacturing sector, which is labour intensive, is a vital asset to help transform our economy.
‘To the organisers, thank you for choosing Cape Town. I am proud to support events such as these because they help the City realise our main objective of creating an enabling business environment. This will ensure that we can attract investment, increase economic growth and create employment opportunities for the people of Cape Town,’ added Alderman Vos.
Source: City Of Cape Town