Invest Cape Town: More than just a tourist destination

Cape Town is determined to see its reputation as a top tourism destination expanded, as it aims to draw investors to the city. Both local and international investors are being encouraged to invest in businesses around the city.

Lance Greyling, director of trade and investment at the City of Cape Town, explained: “This initiative is primarily aimed at changing the narrative around Cape Town as simply a tourism destination to one that is positioned as a globally competitive business destination. We are therefore not directing this initiative specifically at investors but rather seeking to activate those stakeholders who can assist in this repositioning exercise.”

Who can invest?

With the aim of attracting more investors, Cape Town is looking to both local and international investors. Greyling stated that Wesgro is still the agency responsible for investment promotion and facilitation. It is hoped that this initiative will assist Wesgro in attracting more interest in the city as an investment destination.

Wesgro together with Bpesa (agency responsible for attracting outsourcing investment having already secured R1.3 billion investment in the period July to September 2016) are already responsible for attracting investment to Cape Town, however, it is hoped that the new initiative with accelerate this trend.

“We also want local businesses to get behind this campaign as we believe that as more investment is attracted to Cape Town the market will grow and assist all businesses in the Cape Town city-region,” said Greyling.

He added: “There is no minimum investment required as we would welcome any investment into Cape Town. In terms of the office of Trade and Investment our mandate is to assist with investments of R100 million or deemed strategically important but we will refer smaller investments to other departments if so required.”

The Invest Cape Town initiative is looking to grow the Cape Town economy. As such it aims to spur investment in both established businesses and as well new investors. However, from a study of the Cape Town economy, Greyling noted that they have identified which sectors they can look to for major growth and job creation.

According to the City of Cape Town website, the below are priority sectors within the province:

• Agri-business
• Boatbuilding
• Business processing and outsourcing (BPO)
• Creative industries
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
• Oil and gas
• Renewable energy
• Tourism
• Metals, tooling and niche engineering
• Pharmaceuticals, life sciences and biotechnology

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