City of Ekurhuleni is taking care of business
The City of Ekurhuleni is taking care of business and creating long term partnerships that will enable economic growth in the region.
Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele and members of his mayoral committee recently met with the business sector at the launch of a new platform, called City Meets Business.
City Meets Business is specifically formulated to enable the leadership of the metro to engage with big business as a collective in an endeavour to improve communication channels between the parties.
“We want to use this vehicle to get a better understanding of the challenges being experienced by business in our vicinity and how best these can be resolved,” said Gungubele at the launch.
“As a city, we are gunning for the active participation of business in development and investment opportunities and if all goes according to plan, City Meets Business will strengthen public-private partnerships in various socio-economic areas.”
Ekurhuleni is home to just over a quarter of Gauteng’s population and the current contribution to the Gross Geographic Product for Ekurhuleni is estimated at R204-billion, or 6.4 per cent of the national GGP.
Since 1994, the municipality has facilitated and approved public and private investments with a market value of approximately R75-b.
Among these are notable developments such as Carnival City and Emperors Palace casinos, Carnival Mall, Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre, Glendower, Ebotse and Serengeti golf estates, Toyota Parts Centre and the expansion of the OR Tambo International Airport.
Despite this, the unemployment rate remains a major concern, particularly the 36.9 per cent youth unemployment.
Partnering with business in economic development, poverty alleviation and job creation projects and initiatives is one of the spurs of the City Meets Business forum.
Other objectives include creating and sustaining relations with business, promoting Ekurhuleni as a viable location for business and recognising business as an important stakeholder in realising the city’s goals.
“This is a good platform for engagement, as it provides us with access to departments that we can approach to do business with,” said the Ekurhuleni Business Initiative founder, Chris van Biljon.
“However, the city needs to communicate more on the big projects it has, so that we can solicit our involvement as the business fraternity.”
Exposing business to Ekurhuleni’s major developments and flagship projects is one of the objectives of the forum.
At the launch, business owners present were briefed on the Ekurhuleni Growth and Development Plan 2055, Aerotropolis and Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network projects.
