Trade and Sector Development | Western Cape Government

Trade and Sector Development

"We stimulate economic growth in targeted sectors through industry development, trade and investment promotion."

 


TRADE AND INVESTMENT

 

The Department together with Wesgro will support and implement programmes that will make Western Cape enterprises more globally competitive in terms of export activities, to enable participation in the global economy that will create trade and employment opportunities. This will be achieved through the co-ordination and dissemination of trade intelligence, as well as promoting our products and offerings at domestic, international, and Africa wide events with industry stakeholders and other strategic partners from identified sectors. The objective is to increase trade activities.

 

The investment focus is on attracting domestic and foreign investment by promoting the region as a location for targeted subsectors. Emphasis will be on improving the business environment for both local and foreign companies, as well as alignment with national initiatives to attract investment for new businesses or businesses that want to expand their current activities. This additional investment will result in an increase in GDP and potential job creation.

 

Why Cape Town and the Western Cape?

 

The Western Cape is a gateway to the rest of the African continent, and the destination of choice for leading global multinationals establishing their African footprint, including Amazon, Hisense, Kimberly-Clark, Pegas Nonwovens and Scatec Solar.

In the last 10 years, the region has welcomed more than 300 new direct investments, attracting over US$7.5-billion worth of FDI.

From our agricultural innovations and world-class infrastructure, to being Africa’s leading digital hub, Cape Town and the Western Cape offer a long list of opportunities in a variety of sectors.

 

Want to invest in Cape Town and the Western Cape? Read more at www.wesgro.co.za/invest/home

 



SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

 

Sector development is important as it stimulates growth and development in the economy, both directly and indirectly through economic linkages along the value chains of the different industries. In order to determine the sector development potential and needs of the different sectors it is essential that sector research is done accordingly to ensure evidence-based planning. The Department’s objectives are to reduce unemployment by creating enabling conditions for economic growth and providing a facilitation role to key sectors within the Western Cape economy.

The Department supports key tradable sectors as well as sectors with lagging demand-driven potential in order to increase the number of trade transactions with respect to companies that are exporting goods and services. With an increase in local firms exporting more and replacing imported input products and services used during any processing activity will have a direct impact on the GDP of the Western Cape and South African economy. This additional trade activity will directly impact both job creation and economic growth. With regard to catalytic initiatives, the approach is to identify and develop economic projects which are transformative in nature, improving the enabling environment in which businesses and specific industries operate.

Secondary sectors increase value addition by including better productive techniques and by causing the development of more protracted, more intricate value chains. This allows for the application of higher levels of entrepreneurship and the formation of more sophisticated and specialised firms, as well as absorbing labour at higher levels of competency and skill. This increase in sophistication not only allows tertiary sectors to develop (by offering services to the industrial sectors), but also forms the gateway for the economy to graduate towards the tertiary sectors.

By allowing improvements in how inputs are organised and applied, it becomes a driver of sustainable growth and job creation. It can catalyse major economic reform and even transformation by significant gains in productivity and competitiveness. It also comes with multipliers and backward linkages, provides good quality jobs, and can assist in increased exports. Manufacturing growth is also a prerequisite to, and drives job creation and growth in the tertiary sectors. Economic activity with even higher value addition (than in the secondary sector) requires a foundation of large volumes of skilled workers and firms (entrepreneurs) that operate at high levels of sophistication and productivity.

Therefore, based on the approach to tradable sectors and prioritising particular sectors and industries, the sector development and support interventions will be linked to the following sectors:

  • Agri-Processing
  • Manufacturing
  • Marine/Oceans Economy
  • Finance, Business Services & BPO
The content on this page was last updated on 18 December 2020