The City of Cape Town has been ranked number one for ease of doing business according to the latest World Bank research report on South Africa.
The World Bank assessed metro cities in over 189 other economies, including South Africa’s nine metropolitan municipalities and found that Cape Town came out on top of the eight South African metros. The metros were assessed in two of the World Bank’s four indicators.
Cape Town proved to come out on top when basic comparisons were made, such as connecting a customer to electricity, it takes 91 days in Cape Town, 109 in Johannesburg and 110 in Tshwane. Another comparison made was between new business construction permits which take 88 days in Cape Town and 155 in Johannesburg.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also released a report stating that Cape Town was the opportunity city of Africa.
“These results are proof of the many efforts we have put into building an opportunity city and I am pleased with the progress the City has made. But as I always caution, we will not become complacent as there is still a lot more work to do to ensure that we make this great city event greater by attracting more investment so that more people can find employment,” – Patricia De Lille
She even confirmed that energy usage in the city would improve over the next 2 years as they source greener, more renewable energies to support 20% of the cities power needs.
The World Bank has key indicators which they measure and the CoCT worked hard to improve on those aspects.
“We set out a clear strategy to improve on the indicators that the World Bank was measuring. We developed a checklist of things we knew investors, local and international, look at when deciding where to invest.”
While many may have lost hope with the rising petrol prices, the increases in VAT and the possibilities of recession. There is a glimmer of hope as Cape Town becomes a perfect place to invest in business.