Statement by the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asser Management, Alderman James Vos

The City of Cape Town is doublingup on its successes in attracting highvalue foreign direct investment to Cape Town in 2020.

The Economic Opportunities and Asset Management Directorate, the City’s ‘Growth Directorate’, has a compelling investment case to international partners, multinational companies and potential investors with their eye on the city.

Over the past year, my directorate has hosted several engagements with executives of the leading international companies and the Cape Town Consulate Corps to discuss investment opportunities in key sectors. I will continue to engage all stakeholders to push our economic agenda to ensure that Cape Town is top on their list to invest.

There is always more work to be done, but we must reflect on successes and acknowledge what works. This so that we can implement proven strategies and create employment opportunities for the people of Cape Town. That is my mission in 2020.

We have already welcomed the approval of an incentive tariff for Amazon Data Services (ADS), which will pave the way for significant direct investment and indirect valueadded contributions for the city over the next 10 years.

Incentives and investment facilitation offered by the City are meaningful ways that we are ensuring that Cape Town remains regionally and globally competitive.

The City is serious about training young people for jobs. That is why we fund the Cape IT initiative as one of our strategic business partners to train young people for the technology sector, because we put our money where it matters most.

The arrival of the first direct flight between Cape Town and New York this week has given us the opportunity to meet with business delegations from North America.

We have met with representatives from Teleperformance Global, one of the world’s biggest call centre companies, about future investments. These engagements will be strengthened in 2020 to provide potential investors with a compelling case to consider Cape Town as a preferred business and investment destination.

Cape Town is a highperformance African Business hub and an excellent location for businesses looking to launch their operations into Africa. More companies are choosing Cape Town because the city boasts firstclass infrastructure, sound governance and four of the top universities in Africa, thereby providing a skilled workforce.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), essentially call centre operations, is a key sector that brings investment and creates employment opportunities. During the past financial year, the City funded Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPeSA WC) and created 6 000 job opportunities. Over the last five years, the partnership generated investment to the value of R4,7 billion into our city.

My department is always on standby to help international companies land their investments in Cape Town. In the Atlantis Special Economic Zone, my team is hard at work to promote and facilitate investment, and we already have some companies lined up to invest.

Funding from the City trains thousands of young people every year in business process outsourcing. We do this to ensure a skills pipeline into this sector. In the last few years, almost 60 000 people were employed in this industry making it one of the new priority sectors for Cape Town.

I am driven by the overarching objective to make my portfolio the ‘Growth Directorate’ of the City. This means that we focus our energy on attracting investment which creates jobs and leads to economic growth.

A key driver of growth, through tourism and trade, is what I have termed the ‘Big Blue Economy’ and encompasses both the aviation and ocean economies.

To grow the aviation economy, the City provides funding to the Air Access initiative which is mandated to expand current flight routes and to secure new routes to boost tourism and trade. Since its launch in 2015, this initiative contributed to the success of securing 16 new routes, 22 route expansions and have increased the international seat capacity to 1,5 million twoway seats.

The new direct route between New York and Cape Town, serviced by United Airlines, holds great potential for the city with an additional 24 000 inbound passengers from New York. The direct flights will also contribute to an approximate R421 million boost in tourism spend by 2021.

The next exciting step is to grow Cape Town’s cargo footprint for export. Air cargo at Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) is becoming more important. This is evident from the most recent statistics which indicate that cargo freight has grown by 52%. There is a great opportunity to grow this sector, for the benefit of the people of Cape Town and for the export of locally produced goods.

I have tasked my team to collaborate with key stakeholders to develop a cargo strategy, which will leverage the successes of increased global connections from CTIA to allow our products to compete on the world stage.

Reliable and efficient airport infrastructure is the backbone of the travel and trade sector. The expansion of the CTIA, costing R7 billion will make a meaningful contribution to the local economy. My department of Enterprise and Investment (EI) is working with the airport to maximise the benefits of this expansion for local contractors and communities.

The City has also invested in extensive place marketing branding to position our city as a destination of choice for both business and leisure travel. Beautiful branding in airports gives travellers a glimpse of the wonderful sites and attractions Cape Town has on offer.

Governments, at all levels, must work to improve the lives of people. That is why I am deeply concerned that billions of rand is thrown at South African Airways with no real delivery or turnaround in sight. Facing facts may not be easy but it is high time that the national carrier is privatised, so that it becomes viable and able to contribute to growth rather than compromising it.

Other important aspects of the ‘Big Blue Economy’ that are poised for high growth are boat building and cruise tourism. We are working with these key catalytic sectors to implement proven strategies so they reach their full potential and create jobs. I look forward to making further announcements about the programmes to be considered and implemented to unlock the economic potential of these sectors in the new year.

For Cape Town to compete globally and achieve inclusive socioeconomic growth, we will continue to invest in skills and training for the sectors that are poised for substantial growth, instead of training for the sake of training.

I recently announced the establishment of the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project; a project I am very proud of. This project is the first of its kind in the country because the City of Cape Town will be the first municipality to receive funds from this national government entity.

With funding from the National Skills fund as well as the City, this initiative will offer some 3 300 learners the opportunity for training and workplace experience in the BPO and Clothing and Textile sectors.

Through this new Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project, together with our Strategic Business Partners, I will make sure that key sectors have the skills pipelines they need to drive demand for their products and ultimately create employment opportunities for our residents.

Source: City Of Cape Town