by Mireille Wenger, Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities.
The Western Cape is a leading regional economy with world-class infrastructure, serving as a perfect springboard into the rest of Africa. We are also the tech and green energy investment hub of the country, and home to four top universities, giving investors and businesses access to a growing and skilled workforce.
Our dedicated one-stop investment shop, in the heart of the Cape Town CBD is designed to make it as easy as possible to bring your business to the Western Cape. As a government, we place significant emphasis on clean governance and consistently achieve the best audit outcomes in the country. In the last financial year, every single one of our 14 government departments and 11 public entities achieved unqualified audit outcomes, the best results in half a decade.
This means that every cent of public money is spent where it matters most – to deliver basic services to our residents and businesses who trust us with their aspirations and hopes. The Western Cape is also world-class tourism destination, with Cape Town being voted the best city in the world by the Telegraph Travel Awards this year, as well as being home to some of the best brandy, best wines, best food, and best olive oil in the world.
We also received confirmation recently that 14 out of Conde Nast’s top 15 hotels in east and southern Africa are located right in the Western Cape as well. It is also now easier than ever to fly direct into Cape Town, with 215 international flights coming into the award-winning Cape Town International Airport from January 2024, providing better and far more convenient access to some incredible conferencing options.
In the Western Cape, we are more determined than ever to be an example of what can be achieved with the right policies, the right plans and decisive action. ‘Growth For Jobs’ is the Western Cape’s new economic growth strategy and bold step towards enabling the private sector to grow and flourish and create many more jobs. These are just a few of the reasons to invest here, backed by clear and determined action by the provincial government, why the Western Cape is a destination of choice for businesses and investment.
We are determined to work with and enable the private sector and to help it succeed so we can boost economic growth that leads to job creation that we can really make an impact on and improve the lives of our people.
