LATEST NEWS
The City’s strategy to attract investment is paying off - An Overview by James Vos
4 February 2020
Cape Town is a high performance African Business hub and an excellent location for businesses looking to launch their operations into Africa. The City of Cape Town is doubling-up on its successes in attracting high-value foreign direct investment and has a compelling investment case for any international partners, multinational companies and potential investors with their eye on the city.
As the Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities, I believe in implementing strategies that work so we can grow the economy and enable job creation for the residents of Cape Town. Over the past year, my directorate has hosted several engagements with executives of leading international companies and the trade envoys to discuss investment opportunities in key sectors.
To ensure Cape Town remains regionally and globally competitive, we offer incentives for businesses in key areas as well as investment facilitation services.
The main purpose of the recently implemented Investment Incentives Policy is to provide investment incentives in areas where there is great potential for job-creating investment but where challenges to investment currently exist.
We have already facilitated the approval of an incentive tariff for Amazon Data Services, which will pave the way for significant direct investment and indirect value-added contributions for the City over the next 10 years.
The implementation of the investment incentives in the Atlantis area shows the enticements offered by the City and taken up by businesses resulted in the retention of 1 450 jobs during the course of the previous financial year.
Manufacturer, PF Nonwovens, which produces disposable hygiene products, has commissioned their new plant in Atlantis to the tune of R1.3 billion and is expected to create 200 full-time jobs by the time it is fully operational.
My department has extended the investment incentives to a further five industrial areas in Cape Town, namely:
- Triangle Farm;
- Parow Industria;
- Sacks Circle;
- Lansdowne Industrial; and
- Elsies River.
The newly designated incentive areas form part of my priority to ensure we retain and expand businesses in these key locations.
By targeting specific areas which have met a set of criteria, the City intends 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:
Non-financial incentives which are tangible ways where we can help businesses grow by:
- 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 offered by the City makes financial provision to cover specific costs:
- 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.
My department of Enterprise and Investment also offers many investment facilitation services. Specifically, help in navigating municipal processes for larger investments in the City, clearing bottlenecks as well as business retention and expansion services to make sure that businesses grow and creates employment. In Atlantis, there is a dedicated team in the Special Economic Zone to assist with all investment needs, focusing on green technologies.
More companies are choosing Cape Town because the city boasts first-class infrastructure, sound governance and four of the top universities in Africa, providing a skilled workforce. As tech hub of the continent, Cape Town has what it takes to provide a business-friendly environment which grows the economy and creates jobs.
