We were honoured to host Alderman Vos at our most recent Thought Leaders networking engagement. Alderman Vos’s portfolio is incremental to driving economic growth and he is well-known for his passion and innovative ideas.

Ryan Ravens, CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, kicked off the day’s proceedings. He emphasised the need for a renewed and consistent focus on youth employment, stressing that the key to economic growth is South Africa’s dominant youth population (65%). He called for increased urgency when it comes to youth employment initiatives and reiterated the need for a collective effort from business, academia and local and provincial government.

Bongiwe Mbunge, Partner at Forvis Mazars shared their commitment to this exact agenda, encouraging all to adopt a career mindset in the best interests of our youth, stressing the importance of quality education. She emphasised their commitment to grassroots development and leaving a legacy that would positively impact future generations.

Alderman Vos shared the City’s economic growth journey and the importance of supply and demand in growing the economy. He emphasised the need to bring more small and medium-sized businesses into the mix and how opportunities related to Cape Town must align with the national agenda to ensure that our entire country flourishes.

A snapshot of recent successes includes a bumper tourism season that saw over 317,000 international visitors during December and a record 10 million visitors during last year; 27 airlines, 31 destinations and 215 international flights per week; 67 ship visits with roughly 500,00 passengers; 29 successful conference bids for FY22/23 – FY24/25 with an economic impact of R 393 million; a growth of 8.9% in Cape exports and a staggering R13 billion in new investments.

Alderman Vos emphasised the need for an ecosystem that drives demand and the importance of effective skills development to ensure Cape Town is job-ready. He noted that since November 2021, the City has added at least 300,000 new jobs across key economic sectors, including business and financial services, film and multimedia, tourism, green energy, electronics, food and beverage manufacturing, and clothing and textiles. He also stressed that, beyond these sectors, we must strengthen, make more resilient, and enhance the profitability of the SME ecosystem and informal economy. He emphasised the need to remove barriers to make Cape Town the easiest place to do business. The ‘Ease of Doing Business’ initiative aims to reduce red tape and fast-track approvals for building plans, licenses, construction permits, electricity connections, and more.

Other initiatives include:

• Sector-focused programmes to unlock skills and investments: The funding of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in high-growth sectors to drive job creation and innovation, attract investment and showcase Cape Town’s abilities globally.
• The Business Hub: A dedicated team offering support and advice to hundreds of small to medium entrepreneurs across Cape Town. Services offered include weekly online workshops across a range of areas to provide SMEs with the resources and tools needed to be successful (costing, pricing, marketing, tenders, etc.)
• Enterprise Development: Facilitating business workshops and advising on smart procurement, supplier development and productivity. To date, this initiative has helped no fewer than 4,300 businesses across Cape Town.
• Business Retention & Expansion: Offering support to businesses in industrial nodes across 27 industrial areas, with a specific focus on load curtailment and electricity management.
• Land Release Programme: The releasing of land and leasing opportunities to drive economic growth across as wide a geography as possible, and not just limited to the CBD.
• Workforce Development: A ‘Jobs Connect’ platform to connect job seekers with available job opportunities in the private sector. It is currently sitting on 100,000+ registrations.
• Energy Security and Infrastructure: The purchase of excess solar PV power from small-scale generators and the pioneering of a new solar PV plant in Atlantis. Plans are also underway for two additional solar PV plants as well as the building of the biggest GW storage facility in Africa.
• Cape Town Air Access: To land more flights and fly more routes with a specific focus on Africa and the Americas, India, China and South Korea.
• Cape Trade Portal: Supporting local business by enabling local products and services to reach international markets. Currently, there are approximately 4,500 products listed on this portal that is connecting with buyers around the world.
• Cape Town Entrepreneurship Academy: To encourage a stronger entrepreneurial spirit in Cape Town. It offers free training, mentorship and resources to entrepreneurs and established business owners to empower Capetonians with skills and the knowledge needed to grow their businesses.

Over and above, Alderman Vos also shared his advocacy programme and commitment to the increased utilisation of our air space (open skies agreements), a streamlined visa system and private sector participation in the day-to-day operation of our ports.

This engagement provided a unique opportunity for our members to not only gain valuable insight into City initiatives but, as importantly, to build meaningful connections with key City decision-makers and influencers. It ended with a dynamic Q&A session that will see follow-up engagement post our event as the public and private sectors continue to collaborate.

These networking engagements are vital to the economic growth of our region. We remain committed to facilitating this ongoing interaction as part of our shared goal of economic growth and prosperity for our region and country.

Our sincerest thanks to our speakers, guests, sponsors and members for your continued support.