Statement by Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth

This week, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and I had the opportunity to participate in Cape Town/Stockholm Connect Business Summit with Håkan Juholt, the Swedish Ambassador to South Africa.

Under this initiative, companies, developers, customers, investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions from across South Africa and Sweden are linked via a series of activities.

Stockholm is the birthplace of some of the biggest tech companies in the world, including Skype and Spotify, while Cape Town is home to almost 60% of South Africa’s start-ups. Thus, it makes sense to link up our two cities to share knowledge and opportunities for the mutual benefit of our tech ecosystems and economies.

The Cape Town/Stockholm Connect platform speaks to the City government’s larger goal of creating the ideal growth environment for tech start-ups and simultaneously upskilling more Capetonians for existing and future jobs.

Thanks to our funding to organisations such as the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi), Africa’s longest-running tech incubator, we are working towards that goal. CiTi has turned out more than 2 000 businesses and supported over 3 000 entrepreneurs since its inception in 1999.

I am happy to confirm that the City will be supporting research and development programmes at SiliconCape, one of the metro’s major tech accelerators. As part of the Start-Up, Up-Skill masterclasses, experienced business leaders will mentor younger novice entrepreneurs.

Our support for these initiatives, alongside partnerships with game-changers in tech capitals such as Stockholm, will help Cape Town maintain its status as Africa’s innovation hub while laying the foundation for more job opportunities for Capetonians.

Source: City Of Cape Town