City of Cape Town launches programme to expand businesses in Atlantis

The City of Cape Town has launched a business expansion and retention programme to help local businesses and startups in Atlantis.

The programme will be conducted in phases to address the current problems faced by local businesses and provide effective solutions.

James Vos the MayCo Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management provides insight into the aims of the new programme which launched on 9 September.

“This morning, at a meeting with the Atlantis Industrial Initiative, and together with officials from the Enterprise and Investment Department, I launched the City’s Business Expansion and Retention (BE&R) programme. This entails surveying businesses to determine exactly how the City can use the levers available to us to help businesses recover from the lockdown measures, but also to identify opportunities to build a stronger, more resilient future for our businesses.”

The programme

As part of the first phase of the programme, local businesses will be interviewed by a local task force to identify the needs, concerns, suggestions, and perceptions of local businesses in the Atlantis area.

The first phase of the programme will be conducted in the Atlantis Industrial are and is a community-sponsored initiative.

The first phase aims to gather useful data and insight to create action plans to address the problems and establish improvements that can be implemented to assist local businesses in this area.

Vos comments on the importance of assisting local businesses in order to facilitate an ecosystem where startups are able to grow and be created

“Between 60% and 80% of new jobs are created by the growth of existing businesses. Local business accounts for 70% of new investments in our local economy and the growth of existing business also creates opportunities for startups”.

At the launch of the programme, the Enterprise and Investment Department’s Economic Action Plan (EAP), created by the City’s Economic Task Team was presented. The EAP forms part of the City of Cape Town’s economic response and contingency plan for the ” short-term crisis facing the city’s local economy following the various stages of lockdown.”

Focusing on three key stages of response, the EAP will address adaptation, recovery, and stabilisation.

The recovery plan entails enhancing business retention efforts, promoting business expansion and investment, training businesses on new ways of operating, and use the City’s sectoral support approach to identify new sectorial opportunities emerging from the current economic crisis.

“By working together, listening to the needs of businesses, and ensuring that we implement plans that are proven to work, we can get our local economy back on track. I will continue to work with my officials and various stakeholders to get Cape Town back to work and help create the right conditions for job opportunities in all corners of our city,” concludes Vos.

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Featured image: City of Cape Town (Supplied)