PATRICIA DE LILLE: Using city-owned assets cleverly can catalyse investment
In 2011, Cape Town began assessing the needs of investors in order to attract investment
Two weeks ago at a workshop hosted by the Treasury, I came across the following quote by academic Prof Nick Binedell, who said: "Our entire economic future will depend on cities. Economic growth is the oxygen of our democracy and cities are the engines of economic growth." Cities are truly the drivers of change, and one just has to look at the incredible developments that have been happening very recently. In December, FDI Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times, ranked Cape Town 21st in the world on the list of cities with the best foreign direct investment strategies. This is the result of an approach we started to take in 2011, by looking at the needs of investors in order to attract investment. We developed a checklist of indicators that we know are top priorities for investors. They look for reliable infrastructure — we ensure R6bn is spent on infrastructure annually. They look for fast internet — we have already installed 848km of fibre optic cables across the city. Th...
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