As the gateway to Africa, Cape Town is well-positioned to ride the wave of economic opportunity facing emerging economies in 2019 in spite of the slowing down of the global economy, it emerged at a recent Wesgro conference.
Cape Town is strategically positioned as the gateway to Africa to tap into economic opportunities forecast for the continent, in particular Sub-Saharan Africa.
This emerged at Wesgro’s annual Global Economic Priorities conference held recently in the city.
Giving an overview of the global economy and its impact on South Africa and the Western Cape in particular, Wesgro economist Janine Botha said emerging markets and developing economies were expected to outperform advanced economies in 2019. The fastest growing economies were in Africa, presenting unique opportunities for Cape Town to tap into.
WEAK ECONOMIC GROWTH
In his keynote address, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Kuben Naidoo painted a grim picture of the national economy, saying South Africa had experienced weaker economic growth than other emerging markets and a “significant breakdown of trust” over eight to nine years. He said trust was absolutely essential in an investment context.
“How do we turn it around? I believe we have begun the steady ride up … it takes 10 years to rebuild trust, however, but I am confident we have started the process,” he said.
Referring to the regional economy, he said coastal cities like Cape Town had grown twice as fast over the last 30 years as other cities. “Cities that have access to ports have an advantage as supply chains are waterborne,” he said.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
Executive Mayor Dan Plato said while Cape Town was not yet “out of the woods” following the devastating drought that affected all sectors of the Western Cape economy last year, he was confident the city would “bounce back” in 2019. While the drought had caused tourism to decline over the holiday season, it was time to send a message to the world that Cape Town had dealt with the drought “in a very effective manner”.
Economic opportunities for Cape Town highlighted at the conference were:
- Positioning Cape Town and the Western Cape as the tech hub of Africa.
- The Halaal market for products and services, with Halaal tourism predicted to become increasingly significant.
- Strategic collaborations between government, academia, scientific institutions to promote tourism.
- Deepening investment, trade and tourism links with Asia and the ASEAN-5 regions, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
- Expanding Cape Town’s capacity to attract film productions to the region.
Wesgro is Cape Town and the Western Cape’s official Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion agency.
Images: Scott Arendse, CCID Online Coordinator & ENCA