Alderman James Vos, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, confirmed that under the City’s Building Hope Budget, R41 million has been allocated for direct economic incentives to attract jobs and investors to Cape Town.

‘In the previous financial year, our SPV projects facilitated more than R10,85 billion in investments, directly created 8 718 jobs, and helped train 3 497 for work in the metro’s high-value industries,’ said Alderman Vos. 

Two sectors that the City has identified have major scope for growth greentech and marine manufacturing. 

 

Through funding of BlueCape, the City is nurturing the growth of the local boat-building industry which is currently valued at over R3 billion per annum and is growing at 17+% annually.

‘There is a huge appetite for Cape-made boats with local manufacturers processing orders for every work day of 2023 and contracting with major international organisations such as the New Zealand Navy, the United Nations and SpaceX. Through BlueCape, we are investing in the promotion of Cape Town’s marine manufacturing industry, the development of SMMEs in the sector, and upskilling Capetonians to meet the growing workforce demand,’ Alderman Vos said. 

 

Turning to the green economy, Alderman Vos highlighted that this was an ideal moment for Cape Town to capitalise on the demand for renewable energy with the sector in 2022 attracting the highest total capital investment globally, with a value of $343,6 billion across 527 projects.

‘Between July 2022 and June 2023, GreenCape facilitated R1,733 billion in investments for Cape Town which led to hundreds of jobs for people. In the next year, we are going to expand our investment campaigns of Cape Town as a green energy hub while extending skills development opportunities to more communities and small businesses. With these projects, we are cognisant of the environmental and social needs of the metro as well as the investment opportunities open to it. One example is that of the Western Cape Industrial Symbiosis Programme (WISP) which GreenCape has administered since 2013. The programme provides a free facilitation service to manufacturing businesses to assist them with identifying how their waste resources can be used by other companies. 

 

‘All the SPV projects have been carefully considered and formulated to respond to investor sentiments for specific sectors and simultaneously the skilled workforces needed for those sectors. 

 

‘Each business development, job and upskilled person is an investment in Cape Town that helps more people to provide for their families and further opens new paths of opportunity for communities. Thanks to our support for business and workforce development, more Capetonians than ever before have the dignity of a job. With our projects and programmes, we will continue to build a stronger economy that supports more people and makes Cape Town the easiest place in Africa to do business,’ said Alderman Vos.  

Caption 1: Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth with the staff at Gemini Marine Boats

Caption 2: An employee at Ener-G-Africa, a women-powered solar power manufacturer in Ndabeni, shows Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth how the solar panels are assembled.

Caption 3: Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth at the launch of Robertson & Caine's new catamaran.