South African Business 2016 edition

INTERVIEW The hub of

INTERVIEW The hub of Africa Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro (the official Destination Marketing, Investment and Trade Promotion Agency for the Western Cape), is excited about the potential for local businesses to grow into (as well as to serve as a base for) Africa. Wesgro CEO Tim Harris BIOGRAPHY Tim Harris is Chief Executive Offi cer of Wesgro, the Western Cape’s offi cial Destination Marketing, Investment and Trade Promotion Agency. Wesgro is more than 30 years old and remains the oldest organisation of its kind in the country. Prior to that appointment he was the Director of Trade and Investment in the Offi ce of the Executive Mayor at the City of Cape Town and the Shadow Minister of Finance with Democratic Alliance in parliament. He was elected to Parliament aged 29. Harris has a Masters in Economics from UCT. What is the scope of work for your department? Wesgro has a broad mandate, but the heart of our job is investment promotion and destination marketing. Performance has been strong in the last fi ve years and we have generated more than R6.6-billion of inward investment which has created almost 4 500 jobs. In the fi rst half of this year alone the agency facilitated a total of 14 new investments into the province in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, renewable energy, and healthcare. The agency has helped bring more than 7-million foreign tourists into the region and has secured 62 conference bids to the value of R1-billion for the region. What is the long-term potential for the region? Our vision is to be a business hub for Africa and the place that people think about their African strategies. The world meets to talk about mining at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town… in a place where there is no mining! People travel to the World Economic Forum to meet to solve the problems of Africa. We can build on the strategic advantages we have as the city suchwith possibly the best quality infrastructure on the continent and a high quality of life. This makes it a place where entrepreneurs and managers want to live. Key competitive advantages of the Western Cape It is arguable that the Western Cape has the best infrastructure on the continent. The result is that many companies are choosing to base themselves in the Western Cape where they can work in an enabling business environment where the government is focussed on facilitating investment and cutting red tape – while at the same time reaping all of the benefi ts of world-quality infrastructure. Another reason for the province’s attractiveness to business is its proximity to growth markets – both regional and domestic. With this in mind we are working hard to communicate with investors about the work we are doing to boost connectivity to the rest of Africa. Regional integration is a high priority for Wesgro and we are working closely with the Department of Transport, the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town to leverage the size SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016 64

and strength of our port, rail, and road links into the rest of the region. Improved air connectivity, especially into Africa, will be a catalyst for vibrant growth in a number of economic sectors. Red tape and visas The recent changes to South African immigration law have had a negative effect on the local tourism industry but they also resulted in diffi culties for the local fi lm industry and English language schools. In response to these problems Wesgro met with the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and then held a workshop between key stakeholders in the private and public sector including representatives from the DHA to discuss the new visa regulations and fi nd common ground. One of the results of the workshop was a commitment by the Deputy Minister to establish a visa ‘One Stop Shop’ in the Western Cape that would provide assistance with visa-related queries as well as be able to process fast-track visa applications for special industries such as fi lm and investment. She also agreed to travel to China with representatives of the tourism industry to see fi rst-hand how diffi cult it is to secure travel documents for Chinese visitors to South Africa. The minister also subsequently met with Wesgro and representatives from the language schools and agreed to discuss a concession with regards to issuing a special visa for foreign language students provided the integrity and security considerations related to the visas are upheld. INTERVIEW includes Kimberly-Clarke, who have extended their plant (they now run their Europe, Middle East and African regions from their Epping offi ce) and Atlantis Foundries, who manufacture and export engine blocks for Mercedes-Benz trucks. New sectors There is a lot of interest in innovation and digital thanks to the city’s new broadband policies and the fi bre network being installed. Over the last 6 years the City has installed more than 560kms of fi bre optic cable and we encourage private Internet Service Providers to leverage off this infrastructure. The establishment of several “Special Purpose Vehicles” such as GreenCape, BpeSA and the Cape IT Initiative have also provided the information technology, renewable energy, and service sectors with a platform that fosters innovation, competition, and ultimately growth. This infrastructural support feeds off what is probably the strongest education city on the continent; academic institutions such as UCT, Stellenbosch, UWC and CPUT produce an incredible talent pool for companies looking for such high level skills give the Western Cape a real competitive advantage. This is part of the reason why software and the digital space are so prominent in the Cape – it’s a factor of the skills pipeline and the quality lifestyle in the city. We’ve had a lot of entrepreneurship in that space and I think we’re going to see some of the big players globally starting to recognise that Cape Town is the leader on the continent. Recent key investments In recent times the three most interesting investments would be the Chinese giant HiSense setting up a facility in Atlantis, from where they manufacture and export TVs and fridges throughout the region. We are in the process of developing a green technology cluster in Atlantis and the city is also extending its own green incentives into that zone, with German renewable giant Gestamp Renewable Industries (GRI) already having built a 12 000m² windmill tower manufacturing facility, the biggest in the region. Proof of the region’s diversifi ed offering How do you identify and reach investors? We have a large research capacity at Wesgro that enables us to help investors to understand the market and to remove red tape and other obstacles to investment. We also realise the importance of exporting talent and conduct trade missions with small and large companies. We took 25 companies to Ghana in July, mainly small companies who were sponsored by the dti. However, we invested our time and efforts in these companies as we believe they are at the stage in their development that that are able to start exporting to Ghana relatively quickly. 65 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016