Cape Town - Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has unveiled Cape Town’s Ease of Doing Business Index and declared the City’s ambition is to make Cape Town the easiest place to do business in Africa.
The index, launched at a ceremony at City Hall attended by business representatives and diplomats from African countries, will track 10 critical indicators for ease of doing business.
It will have a special focus on enabling greater infrastructure investment and economic growth and jobs in Cape Town.
Hill-Lewis said a huge amount of work had gone into the index and was part of the City’s vision of holding itself publicly accountable to the commitment to being the easiest place to do business in Africa. Hill-Lewis said that as much as the index was about growing the City’s economy, it also had a competitive aspect to it.
“We thought it was not good enough, falling behind cities like Kigali and Nairobi, and countries like the Seychelles and Mauritius, in ease of doing business.
“We want to be the easiest businesses on every continent.”
Addressing his remarks to diplomats from African countries who attended the launch, Hill-Lewis said it was “game on!” in the City’s quest to become the easiest place to do business in Africa.
Mauritius Honorary Consul Mukhtar Joonas, who was in the audience, said Mauritius, which is tenth on the World Bank’s ease of doing business ratings, would welcome the competition from Cape Town.
City manager Lungelo Mbandazayo said the City’s mission was to build a business-friendly culture and to reduce the time, costs and complexity of processes across the 10 indicators, including: building plan approvals; getting electricity; informal trading permits and the digitisation of City services.
Mayco member for economic growth James Vos said: “We know that for businesses, time is money. My hope is that these measures will push the City to be quicker and more capable so that Capetonians can simply get on with the business of business.”
The launch of the index follows a city-wide survey of businesses launched last year and engagements with industry bodies. Feedback from the private sector informs the indicators which the City will track to improve its business-facing services.
Responding on behalf of the business community, chief executive of Accelerate CT, Ryan Ravens said it was “rare and brave” for a City to make itself accountable to business in this manner.
