The Cape Town CBD. File picture: Henk Kruger The Cape Town CBD. File picture: Henk Kruger
Cape Town - Cape Town’s image as primarily a tourism destination is set to change under a new initiative - Invest Cape Town.
The city council wants to re-brand and market the city as a globally competitive business and investment option to create much-needed jobs for the unemployed people of Cape Town.
Already, Cape Town is home to the most tech start-ups on the continent, financial institutions and legal firms, call centres for global companies and online retailers.
The city is also the green energy hub of Africa. Cape Town’s reputation as a tourism destination only had become too deeply entrenched, said mayor Patricia de Lille.
“We are looking for unconventional, disruptive solutions. We want to disrupt the old way of thinking about Cape Town.”
Despite being the lowest in the country, unemployment in the province was still too high. Over the next three months, the business community will be encouraged to offer opinions on what information needs to be shared about the city to potential investors.
Some groundwork has already been done in developing the new brand for Cape Town, but the city council wants to test and refine this position with stakeholders.
“We need to find the stories that are hidden about the great successes in the city,” said Lance Greyling, the director of trade and investment in the mayor’s office.
Invest Cape Town wants the city to become a place to nurture creativity, inspire innovation and encourage resourcefulness.
The initiative will have its own website and Twitter handle to disseminate a range of informative materials that will be used to entice investment to Cape Town.
The city council will be working with partners like investment promotion agency Wesgro to grow the Invest Cape Town initiative and to change the prevailing narrative about Cape Town.
“This initiative does not take away from these efforts, but rather seeks to augment them by providing an overarching narrative that allows all actors to sell this region’s economy to the world,” said Greyling.
The number of international flights from the continent and abroad to Cape Town have already increased which improved the city’s position as a strong base from which to invest, expand and export.
lindsay.dentlinger@inl.co.za
CAPE ARGUS