Multinational Roche plans to expand investment in Cape Town

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

In February of this year, I had the pleasure of confirming that the world’s largest biotech company, Roche, had entered into a long-term lease in the Brackengate 2, Business Park in Cape Town and had begun construction on their new Roche Diagnostics office. I can confirm that Roche is now considering acquiring a piece of land adjacent to the current construction site to prepare for further expansion. This is a testament to the confidence the company has in Cape Town as a city. Read more below:

I recently returned to the site of their new office, and despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, construction is on track. Not only are Cape Town and the Western Cape the tech hubs of Africa, Cape Town is also a leading health tech hub on the continent.

The City continues to be an excellent location for businesses looking to launch their operations into Africa and beyond. I am thrilled that Roche has chosen to expand its investment in our city.

Roche will invest an estimated R700 million and, within the next three years, plans to employ about 300 employees to work from its new Cape Town site. The new office includes a laboratory, biotech production capacity and office workspace.

I am immensely proud of the work done by the City’s Enterprise and Investment (E&I) Department as well as the Northern District Planning Office for the hard work they have done to facilitate this exciting investment in our city.

The City’s Investment Facilitation Unit (IFU), within the E&I Department, offers many investment facilitation services, including assisting in navigating municipal processes for larger investments in the City and clearing bottlenecks as well as business retention and expansion services to make sure that businesses grow and create employment opportunities.

Together with the officials in the E&I Department, we will continue to ensure that we attract investment that creates job opportunities for the residents of Cape Town, which is more important than ever, as we start on the road to recovery from the COVID-19 lockdown measures.