The City of Cape Town’s Investment Incentive Scheme in Atlantis has achieved an incentive uptake of more than R10 million during the first year of implementation. Importantly, the uptake of the City’s incentives has contributed to the retention of more than 2 000 jobs in this impoverished area. Read more below:
The City’s Mayoral Committee today noted the first annual progress report on the Investment Incentive Policy for the year ending July 2014.
The City’s Investment Incentive Scheme identified Atlantis as a pilot focus area for the roll-out of incentives to attract investment and to boost job creation and retention.
‘The uptake in Atlantis has been promising. A total of 67 incentives were taken up by 49 investors. The value of the financial incentives that have been taken up during the year under review exceeds R10 million. The majority of the incentives used by businesses supported job retention. Over 2 000 job opportunities have been retained as a result of this incentive. Importantly, our efforts to create an enabling environment to attract investment for increased job creation have started to yield results. There are a number of businesses in the pipeline who are looking to establish themselves in Atlantis. GRI Wind Steel South Africa is currently on site and their operations are creating employment for 220 workers,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development, Councillor Garreth Bloor.
The electricity tariff subsidy has already been accessed by the largest energy users in Atlantis, but potential investors who consider locating or expanding their business in the Atlantis industrial area have an array of incentives offered to them. These include the Development Application Fee exemption; development application fast-tracking; and the development contribution deferral/debt write-off which is capped to a maximum of R1 million per investment and must create at least 50 new permanent full-time jobs within two years for the debt referral/write-off incentive to be activated.
‘This focused intervention is one of the City’s many critical plans for Atlantis as we try to make progress possible through partnerships. Economic development is key to the upliftment of our vulnerable communities. The success of this area is dependent on partnerships between the City, the community and the private sector. Over the coming months, we will step up our efforts to promote this incentives scheme, which has the potential to change the lives of many of our historically marginalised communities,’ said Councillor Bloor.