Leveraging the Western Cape’s reputation as the “digital gateway to Africa” and a growing platform for new entrepreneurs, provincial Economic Opportunities Minister Alan Winde on Wednesday recommitted his department to further promoting job creation in an effort to add over 300 000 jobs to the economy in the next five years.

Delivering his Budget Vote Speech for the 2016/17 financial year on Tuesday, Winde revealed that the Department of Economic Development and Tourism had received R486-million to fund its fight against unemployment in the province.

Of that, the province’s Economic Planning Unit would receive R215.1-million to ensure that all business sectors in the Western Cape had the right environment in which to grow, which included ensuring energy security.

“For an economy to thrive and attract investment, it must have stable, affordable power. In the Western Cape we have prioritised the development of clean energy sources. While the National Government is signing nuclear deals and building coal-mines, we are going green,” he said.

Winde noted that the Western Cape was awaiting the outcome of its application to transform Atlantis into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

If approved, this would open the way for further investment in manufacturing and services in the Atlantis industrial area, resulting in 1 000 direct jobs and over a R1-billion rand of investment in manufacturing by 2025.

“The SEZ is not designated yet but we have already seen over R500-million in direct investments creating close to 400 direct jobs, and a very exciting investor pipeline,” said Winde.

He also highlighted that, over the last five years, investments of more than R17-billion had been made in renewable-energy projects in the Western Cape – R2.5-billion of which was invested last year alone. This created over 2 000 jobs that were project-specific, with another 700 related component manufacturing jobs.

REDUCING RED TAPE 
Meanwhile, the Integrated Economic Development Services (IEDS) team would receive R40.9-million in the 2016/17 financial year to continue providing the right environment for Western Cape businesses to grow and create jobs.

Winde noted that, in the past seven years, the IEDS programme had given 36 159 entrepreneurs the tools they needed to start a business and that, as a government, the Western Cape had prioritised the elimination of outdated laws that were holding business back.

“Since its inception in 2011, our Red Tape Reduction Unit has assisted approximately 5 200 businesses, with a resolution rate of around 90%,” he said, adding that the unit would continue to aid companies investing in the province by helping smooth their businesses processes and maintaining the province’s reputation as “a good place to do business”.

“Over the next four years, the Red Tape Reduction Unit has set itself the goal of saving businesses in the province R500-million,” he said.

Winde also noted that, in collaboration with the Western Cape’s tourism, trade and investment promotion agency Wesgro, the Red Tape Reduction Unit would establish the Western Cape Investors’ Centre – a platform to ease the path for medium to large investors wanting to set up shop or expand their current businesses in the province.

“We also have a proactive team in place to hunt new business, inside and outside of our borders, and to assist interested investors. Through Wesgro . . . we’re aiming to create between 1 800 and 3 740 jobs through investments worth between R3.1-billion and R5.4-billion over the next three years,” said Winde.

PROJECT KHULISA
Furthering the province’s efforts to create an enabling environment for business, Winde allocated R59.5-million for the Trade and Sector Development Programme to drive the department’s Project Khulisa and attract increased investment in the region.

“Through Project Khulisa, we are focused on growing . . . oil and gas, tourism and agriprocessing. These sectors have the highest potential to dramatically accelerate growth and jobs,” said Winde.

He noted that the department would focus on growing the Halal market, increasing wine and brandy exports to strategic markets, and increasing local processing capacity through key infrastructure projects. 

Further, Winde highlighted the transformation of Saldanha Bay into a duty-free zone for rig repair as the anchor of the Western Cape government’s oil and gas programme. 

“We can add up to a further 60 000 formal jobs to our economy if we all work together to realise our vision of becoming the prime base for rig repair on the continent.

“We already have most of what it takes: high rig traffic, affordable labour and service sophistication,” he said, adding that, in partnership with strategic stakeholders in the national and local government, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism was determined to complete several port and marine development projects to realise this vision.

TOURISM
Winde further revealed that the Tourism, Arts and Entertainment programme would receive R46.5-million in the 2016/17 financial year to grow the Western Cape’s tourism sector.

He noted that tourism was the province’s fastest-growing sector, employing over 200 000 people and generating R17-billion for the province’s economy each year.

“Through Project Khulisa, we are seeking to add up to a further 100 000 jobs in this sector and, as part of this province-wide effort, we have identified a set of exciting projects.”

One such project was the Air Access programme, which targets the development and initiation of new routes to key strategic markets in an effort to get more visitors to the province. 

Winde’s department was also establishing an Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) growth strategy, to attract tourists from strategic markets, as well as implementing a Delegate Boosting and Conversion programme, which would aim to convert business tourists to leisure tourists, targeting conference attendees specifically.

“We know we have to be responsive to market trends and demands. In this respect, we are determined to make technology work for us by tapping into the power of big data to grow our economy. Very shortly we will launch a tourism data and real-time business intelligence dashboard which will provide us with the most recent trends and performance of the Western Cape tourism industry.”

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Lastly, Winde noted that the department’s Skills Development and Innovation programme would receive R63.24-million in the current financial year.

“Our drive to boost the number of young skilled people in this province will go beyond government to involve academia and the private sector,” he promised.

The department would also invest R12.4-million in providing young people with technical and vocational skills. However, Winde noted that they needed partnerships to make this a success.

“In this regard, we rely on business owners to open their doors to artisans-in-training needing to complete their internship phase, and I ask that employers reach out to my office if they are able to assist,” he concluded.