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Western Cape Business 2017 edition

  • Text
  • Agriculture
  • Maritime
  • Development
  • Gan
  • Network
  • Cape
  • Africa
  • Government
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Investment
  • Business
  • African
  • Sector
  • Banking
  • Provincial
  • Economic
  • Municipality
The 2017 edition of Western Cape Business is the 10th issue of this highly successful publication that, since its launch in 2005, has established itself as the premier business and investment guide to the Western Cape province. The Western Cape has numerous promising investment and business opportunities and this issue includes contributions from Alan Winde (Minister of Economic Opportunities for the Western Cape Government), interviews with Ryan Ravens (CEO of Accelerate Cape Town), Arifa Parkar (Western Cape Business Opportunities Forum CEO), Wesgro CEO Tim Harris and Lance Greyling (Invest Cape Town) as well as contributions from various business leaders. In addition, you will also find comprehensive features on all the key sectors in the Western Cape.

SPECIAL FEATURE and the

SPECIAL FEATURE and the amount of wine that could be exported was increased from 50-million litres to 100-million litres. Thirteen days later Britain voted to leave the EU. This means that at least two new treaties have to be signed: a SADC-EU treaty that excludes the UK from the provisions and a new SADC-UK treaty. This could present new opportunities for all parties but it does mean that the landscape will be somewhat different. The Western Cape stretches to the north along the Atlantic Ocean about 400km from the provincial capital, Cape Town. The Port of Saldanha Bay lies along this coast; it is intended to become a hub for the maritime repair and oil and gas industries. The eastern boundary is defined by the Bloukrans River, which means that tourism hotspot Plettenberg Bay falls within the Western Cape. Beaufort West on the N1 highway is the biggest town in the north-eastern section of the province. The province is well served with infrastructure such as the N1 and N2 highways, and the N7 which services the West Coast. Three ports at Saldanha Bay, Cape Town and Mossel Bay serve different markets. The Port of Cape Town has recently opened a Cruise Terminal and a large new fuel storage terminal is being constructed in the port. Cape Town International Airport and George Airport see to air travel needs. Cape Town also hosts an oil refinery (Chevref) and a gas-to-liquids refinery at Mossel Bay, which is run by the national oil company, PetroSA. Koeberg nuclear power station is South Africa’s only such power station and there are a further three open-cycle gas turbines and a pumped-water-storage scheme. Wind and solar power are being installed rapidly across the province as South Africa tries to end its dependency on fossil fuels. The population of the Western Cape is also well served by educational institutions including the University of Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch, the University of the Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Cape Town has three Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and there are a further three for the Boland, the Southern Cape and the West Coast, all with multiple campuses. The Cape Town International Convention Centre is the province’s leading facility in the events and conference field, and it is undergoing an extension that will lead to its doubling in size. The extension is due to open in 2017. Many hotels have conference facilities and a large number of new hotels are being built, particularly in and around Cape Town. The national parliament is located in Cape Town and there is a separate provincial legislature. The Western Cape is unique among South Africa’s nine provinces in that the Democratic Alliance (DA) runs the province. The African National Congress is the majority party in the national parliament and it controls the other eight provinces. The DA also governs most of the provincial municipalities in the province, including the metropolitan municipality of Cape Town. There are five district municipalities, which are further divided into 24 local municipalities. In 2015, the population of the Western Cape was estimated to be 6.2-million. The official languages of the province are Afrikaans, English and Xhosa. The province has diverse climatic conditions and geographical features. The north-west coastal strip is dry but the valleys inland from the coast support intensive citrus and grape cultivation. The Garden Route regions of the Southern Cape are heavily WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2017 16

SPECIAL FEATURE forested. In between there are the rugged mountains of the Cederberg, the wheat and barley fields and winelands of the Boland and the Overberg, the fruit-producing valleys of the Klein Karoo and the dry plains of the Great Karoo. The province and the region are most commonly associated with Table Mountain, which watches over the city of Cape Town and forms a national park of its own. The Western Cape has the natural advantage of access to the warm Agulhas current along the south coast and the cold Benguela current up the west coast, offering opportunities for a wide variety of aquaculture and mariculture products to be farmed along the province’s coastline. Economy Finance, business services and real estate combined contribute 28% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Western Cape. The financial services and insurance sector in particular has been a key component of the economy for many years, with many of South Africa’s biggest companies having their headquarters in Cape Town. Asset management and venture capital companies have been growing strongly in recent times. Agriculture is another important sector. Although only accounting for 4.3% of GDP on its own, the sector is responsible for the fruit and vegetables that contribute to agri-processing, which accounts for nearly 40% of the province’s export basket. (Agriprocessing accounts for 8.1% of GDP.) Citrus, wine, apples and pears, grapes, fruit juice, fruit and nuts and tobacco all appear in the top 10 of the province’s exports. Seventy percent of South Africa’s beverage exports came from the Western Cape over the last decade. Grape and wine sales to Europe remain very strong but the Chinese market is becoming increasingly important. Refined petroleum was the single biggest earner for the Western Cape in 2015, with exports valued at R18.2-billion (Wesgro). The province has a diverse manufacturing sector ranging from textiles, clothing, footwear and furniture to coke and refined petroleum products. Excluding agri-processing, other manufacturing makes up 6.9% of GDP. Several significant foreign investments have been received into the Western Cape in recent years: Hisense, GlaxoSmithKline and Kimberley-Clark, among others. Sector growth The Provincial Government of the Western Cape is putting multiple resources into Project Khulisa, a plan to promote growth in three sectors that will also create new jobs: Oil and Gas, Agri-processing and Tourism. Other sectors that are also expected to grow quickly are: • ICT: Cape Town is already a knowledge hub with banks supporting fintech hubs and several firms making high-tech medical equipment. The City of Cape Town has an ICT strategy and the Silicon Cape Initiative is doing all it can to keep the momentum going in this field. • Film: The skyline near Somerset West has been notable for the rigging of two huge sailing ships 17 WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2017

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