Cape Town sets its sights on growing manufacturing

Developing trade and

establishing Cape Town

as a manufacturing hub

remained a top priority

for the

Western Cape

government

but it needed

to “decouple”

from the

national

trajectory

to do this,

said Lance

Greyling,

director

trade and

investment

for the City of

Cape Town.

Addressing a business

summit hosted by the Cape

Chamber of Commerce

and Industry last week, he

said cities like Cape Town

were no longer competing

on a local level but globally

and therefore [it] had to

become an economic hub if

it wanted to attract the big

players around

the globe.

“When

we have

introduced the

decoupling

concept before,

it has been

interpreted

as us wanting

to decouple

from the

South African

economy. That

is not what we

are looking

to do. We see ourselves as

playing a fundamental role

in confronting the economic

challenges in South Africa.”

But, said Greyling, the

South African economic

trajectory at the moment

was particularly dire.

“We have entered into

negative growth. We want

to make sure we put Cape

Town on a fundamentally

different trajectory where

we will grow the economy

at a much higher rate than

what the national growth

is.”

He said the City wanted

to see more investors in

Cape Town and also more

companies establishing

their offices there. Greyling

said major advances had

been made, such as the

investments in Atlantis in

the Western Cape.

“The Hisense factory

has seen so much success

that it is going to increase

its production line

significantly,” he said.

The company has also set

targets of around

R300 million for moving

more white goods into

Africa from the Western

Cape factory. And,

Hisense has also set up

an arm to export South

African products back

to its employees at the

Chinese factories.

INSERT & CAPTION

We see ourselves

as playing a

fundamental role

in confronting the

economic challenges

in South Africa.

– Lance Greyling

CAPTION

The Hisense factory in Atlantis has set up a division to export

SA products back to China. Photo: Chinese Consulate