Western Cape government launches campaign to woo foreign investors

South Africa’s Western Cape provincial government, through its Department of Economic Development and Tourism, has launched a campaign to attract foreign investors to the province.

The campaign will target investors at the country’s key source markets for inward investment, namely the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France and China.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign yesterday (4 October) at Cape Town’s InvestSA centre, Western Cape Minister for Economic Opportunities Alan Winde (pictured above) said it was time for South Africa to take a “much more prominent position” in conversations on Africa.

“So often you hear people talking about Rwanda and Mauritius, and not talking about us. And we have to get ourselves in that conversation and that’s what this campaign is about,” he said.

The international investor confidence campaign is aimed at investors in the US,UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France and China

The campaign is based around a website, series of videos, success stories and a booklet which position Cape Town as “A place of more” (see the video below).

“This plan is about making sure that we continue to push those boundaries to position what we have got and what we have done well so that we can play in that same team.

“Because that’s what the world looks at, and when they think of Africa they start thinking of those countries (Mauritius and Rwanda). Quite frankly South Africa needs to be in that space, and we haven’t been doing what we have been supposed to be doing,” he added.

Rashi Toefy, the department’s deputy director general for economic operations, said the idea behind the campaign is to showcase the province’s competitive advantage in areas such as Cape Town’s tech sector, the province’s airports, its growing economy, agricultural innovation and the wine industry.

The department began working on the campaign in June last year — after the round of credit rating downgrades the country received. It is based on consultation with 222 international investors as well as 90 SA investors.

Toefy said among those international investors that were consulted, corruption, poor infrastructure and crime emerged as key investment constraints, which he added that the Western Cape provincial government and the City of Cape Town would work to address.

Featured image: Western Cape Minister for Economic Opportunities Alan Winde speaking at the launch of the international investor confidence campaing in Cape Town on 4 October