The City’s Economic Growth Directorate, joined by its Energy counterpart, has held its annual event with a host of consul-generals representing countries across the world.
The gathering was used to highlight the state of Cape Town’s economy and the opportunities therein. It was attended by consul-generals from the US, Zimbabwe, India, and numerous other nations.
In opening the event, Alderman James Vos, the Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, pointed out that Cape Town must be a great place to live for it to be a great place to invest and visit.
‘As a City government, we work hard to make sure this happens as far as we possibly can. Cape Town now has the lowest broad unemployment rate of any metro in the country with 1,83 million Capetonians now going to work. That’s the highest number since Stats SA began reporting the metro’s jobs figures. We don’t take that number for granted, because behind every job is a person. And we keep pushing for all the other Capetonians still job-hunting,’ said Alderman Vos.
These gains were made possible through the prioritisation of specific goals, including the Ease of Doing Business programme aimed at cutting municipal red tape; workforce development initiatives to upskill residents and connect them with jobs; and enabling the tourism industry which is central to Cape Town’s economy and a springboard to cross-industry investments.
‘These are the building blocks to achieving double-digit growth in key sectors. This is what we focus on every day, with our incredible team at the City.
‘The success of our efforts is evident in the reach and gains of foreign direct investment into Cape Town: Between January 2003 and July 2023, 744 global FDI projects occurred in the metro, representing an estimated total capital investment of R114,76 billion. Further, the total value of Cape Town export earnings in 2022 was R111,46 billion. These figures represent the economic success of our targeted investment development initiatives,’ said Alderman Vos.
The floor was then given over to Alderman Xanthea Limberg, the Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, who highlighted the City’s successes in maintaining electricity supply and its plans for the future.
‘We are making bold investments and policy shifts to ensure that Cape Town’s energy demand is met with an increasing carbon-neutral supply. We are building a capable power utility, one that integrates multiple sources of energy, leverages cutting-edge technologies, and maintains operational excellence in a volatile national grid environment. To that end, over a three-year period which started last year, we are investing over R4 billion into our grid, to make it stronger and better for our future energy needs.
‘Through these investments, we aim to provide customers with greater choice, better price predictability, and access to greener energy. We are creating an environment that attracts competitive investment thanks to our clean audits and reputation of sound financial management,’ said Alderman Limberg.