Mr President, where there is a will, there is a way to attract investment, provide skills and create jobs

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS

At the Presidential Summit today, my main objective was to share with President Cyril Ramaphosa the City of Cape Town’s successful strategy in attracting R15,8 billion worth of investment, creating 24 461 jobs and training 11 490 people over the last five years.

I welcomed the opportunity to represent the City of Cape Town at the President’s Investment Summit today. I looked forward to making a compelling case for Cape Town and shared my vision, plans and successes in attracting investment and the creation of thousands of jobs in the City of Cape Town.

In the 2018/19 financial year alone, the City of Cape Town attracted R2,7 billion worth of investment, created 4 764 jobs and provided skills training to 2 109 individuals through our Strategic Business Partners and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) companies, which are funded by the City.

This is no mean feat considering the current state of the economy. During the Finance Minister’s Medium Term Budget Policy speech last week, we were told just how bad things are.

National debt is increasing at an alarming rate. National government now spends more on repaying debt than on “health and economic development” combined. Economic growth is flat lining, unemployment has increased to an 11-year high and 10.2 million South Africans cannot find work or have given up looking for work.

There is no denying that we are in deep trouble and this has very real consequences for the people of our country.

It is vital that we implement strategies and plans that are proven to work, which attract investment, provide skills and create jobs. This is my vision and mission.

I am happy to say that there are still more programmes to come which are focused on increasing investment and ultimately, geared to create jobs in the City of Cape Town.

Last week, the City Council approved the extension of investment incentives to a further six areas in Cape Town, namely:

• Atlantis Industria;
• Triangle Farm;
• Parow Industria;
• Sacks Circle;
• Lansdowne Industrial; and
• Elsies River

The primary objective of the Investment Incentives Policy is to provide investment incentives in areas where there is significant potential for job creating investment but where challenges to investment currently exist.

By targeting specific areas which have met a set of criteria, the City aims to:
• Maximise the socio‐economic return of incentives by focusing on areas with strong potential but which are currently underperforming
• Assist in removing area‐specific blockages to investment or systemic market or regulatory failure
• Enable the achievement of development objectives in specific areas, and
• Assist with addressing issues of spatial inequality

The incentives are made up of non-financial and financial incentives and include:

• Tangible ways where we can help businesses grow
• Prioritised single-point investment facilitation
• Building plan application fast-tracking (5-day turnaround)
• Land use application fast tracking (3 months)
• Occupancy certificate fast-tracking (5 days)

Financial incentives which include the City’s commitment to making financial provision to cover costs. These include:

• Building plan application fee waiver
• Land use application fee waiver
• Development contribution deferral and write off up to R1 million
• Special electricity tariffs for a period of two years.

Since I was appointed almost a year ago, I have focused my directorate on being the growth directorate. This means that we are constantly on the lookout for ways to promote investment and most importantly facilitate job creation.

I am proud that these incentives add another real mechanism to ensure Cape Town remains regionally and globally competitive, can attract more investment and increase job creation in the metro.