Building an Economy of Hope and Confidence with Alderman James Vos

Cape Town Economic Growth, Tourism and Investment

Alderman Vos highlighted several significant achievements supporting Cape Town economic growth across tourism, air access, investment, exports and the conference economy.

• Tourism: Cape Town experienced a bumper tourism season in December 2022, with two-way passenger recovery reaching 96% of 2019 levels.
• Air access: Four new routes and three new airlines were introduced during 2022. These additions generated no less than R430 million in direct tourism spending between November 2022 and March 2023. Cape Town International Airport currently hosts 21 airlines, serving 27 destinations through 199 flights per week. Further negotiations are planned to establish more direct routes from India, China and South America.
• Investment: The City facilitated R3 billion in new investments, with the technology and green economy investment pipelines continuing to show strong growth.
• Cruise Cape Town: No fewer than 75 cruise ships were confirmed between November 2022 and May 2023, with approximately 500,000 passengers expected to disembark during this period.
• Conventions: A total of 29 conference bids were secured for the 2022/23 to 2024/25 financial years. These conferences were expected to attract more than 20,000 delegates and generate a direct economic impact of R393 million.
• Exports: Export declarations reached the 5 billion mark. The Made in the Cape campaign also reached 10 million unique users through a campaign in the United Kingdom. Cape Town products are promoted internationally through the
  
  Cape Trade Portal
  .

Infrastructure Investment for Cape Town Economic Growth

Infrastructure investment is essential to sustaining Cape Town economic growth as the city’s population, economy and demand for municipal services continue to expand.

Alderman Vos discussed the City’s commitment to investing R120 billion in infrastructure over the next ten years.

The purpose of this investment is to ensure that Cape Town’s infrastructure can support its current residents while creating additional capacity for continued population growth and semigration to the Western Cape.

More information is available in the City’s

infrastructure investment report
.

Cape Town also remains committed to reducing loadshedding and becoming an energy-smart city. Maintaining sound financial governance is equally important for building investor confidence and earning residents’ trust in how public funds are managed.

Making Cape Town Easier to Do Business In

Lance Greyling, Director of

Invest Cape Town
,
also attended the engagement.

Invest Cape Town is a City of Cape Town initiative focused on attracting and retaining foreign direct investment that is strategically important to the economic development of the city.

Its economic growth strategy aims to improve Cape Town’s business environment while strengthening the city’s international profile as an attractive investment destination.

In support of the Mayoral pledge to make Cape Town the easiest place in which to do business, Invest Cape Town’s priorities include the following:

• Economic Action Plan: A programme focused on business retention, expansion, productivity and innovation. Alderman Vos and his team have worked with businesses across Cape Town on productivity and business modelling. This support has helped protect approximately 1,800 jobs across around 800 businesses.
• Inclusive Economic Growth Strategy: A strategy focused on the built environment, infrastructure, basic services and labour. The strategy contains 189 action steps, all of which are incorporated into the key performance areas of City directors and heads of department.
• Six-Pillar Narrative: A strategy built around the themes of “Visit, Live, Work, Study, Play and Invest”. This narrative was promoted through a successful two-week campaign across five cities in the United States.
• I Mean Business: An initiative forming part of the Ease of Doing Business programme. All 30,000 City employees will receive training intended to help them become more business-friendly, with an emphasis on execution and results.
• Ease of Doing Business Index: A comprehensive self-assessment of the City’s business-focused conduct. Developed in collaboration with business, the index includes ten indicators linked to turnaround times for processes such as building plan submissions, electricity connections, informal trading permits and business licensing.
• Online business dashboard: A digital dashboard that will allow businesses, investors and other interested parties to view and track the City’s progress.
• Additional programmes: Further platforms and initiatives are being developed to strengthen the City’s Ease of Doing Business approach.

Supporting SMMEs and Job Creation

A strong focus on small, medium and micro enterprises and job creation has also led to the successful rollout of the Business Hub and Jobs Connect.

The Business Hub is a free online platform through which entrepreneurs can access online courses, mentoring and business coaching.

Jobs Connect links available employment opportunities with job-seeking candidates. It also provides skills-bridging courses as part of the City’s objective to help Capetonians become job-ready.

These programmes form an important part of the City’s broader efforts to support employment, entrepreneurship and inclusive Cape Town economic growth.

Collaboration for Sustainable Cape Town Economic Growth

Alderman Vos stressed that the City cannot achieve these successes or realise its future goals without close collaboration between government, business and civil society.

He shared several examples of collaborative partnerships, including:

• Silicon Cape and the City-funded technical skills training programme.
• Cape Town Tourism and its collaborative work on the Six-Pillar programme.
• The City’s work with the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership on township economy strategies.

Alderman Vos also reaffirmed his team’s commitment to advocating for reforms in areas that fall outside the City’s direct mandate. These include the expansion of Cape Town International Airport and the introduction of remote-working visas.

Building an Economy of Hope and Confidence

Cape Town continues to be a beacon of hope. Strong public-private partnerships are essential to advancing the local development agenda, growing the economy and sustaining confidence in the city’s future.

These partnerships are also critical to keeping hope alive and ensuring that Cape Town remains an attractive destination for businesses, investors, visitors and residents.

Accelerate Cape Town

remains committed to facilitating and supporting meaningful engagement and collaboration between local government representatives and the Cape Town business community.