City launches Business Expansion and Retention initiative in Atlantis

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

This morning, at a meeting with the Atlantis Industrial Initiative, and together with officials from the Enterprise and Investment Department, I launched the City’s Business Expansion and Retention (BE&R) programme. This entails surveying businesses to determine exactly how the City can use the levers available to us to help businesses recover from the lockdown measures, but also to identify opportunities to build a stronger, more resilient future for our businesses.  Read more below:

The City knows that our local businesses are vital for job creation, job retention, and investment. Between 60% and 80% of new jobs are created by the growth of existing businesses. Local business accounts for 70% of new investments in our local economy and the growth of existing business also creates opportunities for start-ups.

The first phase of the programme will be conducted in the Atlantis Industrial area and is a community sponsored initiative that involves the formation of a local taskforce and the use of a structured interview process to learn about the needs, concerns, suggestions and perceptions of local businesses.

From this information, action plans to address the identified problems, improvements, and opportunities will be drawn up and implemented.

I also presented the Enterprise and Investment Department’s Economic Action Plan (EAP), developed by the City’s Economic Task Team, which serves as the City of Cape Town’s economic response and contingency plan for the short-term crisis facing the city’s local economy following the various stages of lockdown.

The EAP has been compiled on the premise of three stages: response; adaptation and recovery; and lastly, stabilisation.  I also shared further details of what the recovery plans entail:

• Enhancing business retention efforts;
• Making it easier for expansion and investment to resume again;
• Equipping businesses for new ways of working; and
• Utilising the City’s sectoral support approach to identify and exploit new sectoral opportunities emerging from the crisis.

By working together, listening to the needs of businesses and ensuring that we implement plans that are proven to work, we can get our local economy back on track. I will continue to work with my officials and various stakeholders to get Cape Town back to work and help create the right conditions for job opportunities in all corners of our city.