Ekurhuleni executive mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele jetted off to China on Wednesday, on a mission to woo investors to the city.
Gungubele will also attend the annual World Airport Cities Conference and Exhibition, which will take place in China from May 13 to 15.
In an attempt to turn the economy of Ekurhuleni around and create jobs for the thousands who are unemployed in the city, a few years ago the metro adopted the aerotropolis concept as an economic growth trajectory.
An aerotropolis is a city that anchors its economic activities around the existence of an international airport – in this case the O R Tambo International Airport.
The Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis Programme is an overarching flagship programme which encapsulates other flagships such as the digital city, integrated rapid public transport network, beautification of lakes and dams, urban regeneration, development of township economies and the revitalisation of the manufacturing sector among others, to drive the radical economic development and transformation agenda of Ekurhuleni.
“We realise that these interventions may not have the envisaged impact if they are not coupled with a systematic programme to crowd-in strategic investment into the metro.
“We are, therefore, putting a concerted effort towards the redistribution of the wealth of the city as envisaged in section 217 of the Constitution of South Africa,” said Gungubele.
“We are going to China to tell the world that Ekurhuleni has adopted a posture that is welcoming to strategic partnerships and private sector investments.
“We want the world to know that we are the preferred destination for investment in the southern hemisphere.
”There is no doubt that the aerotropolis concept is now mainstreamed in the metro and has ignited a new wave of investments in and around the airport catchment area.
“It should be noted that the implementation of the aerotropolis programme in Ekurhuleni intends to balance the distribution of economic activity between the nine affluent areas and the 17 townships of Ekurhuleni.
“This will be achieved through a systematic spatial and economic programme to enable the geographic spread.
“This way, our people will enjoy its benefits and improved quality of life from wherever they are without moving closer to the airport.”
Having leveraged the best global expertise in the development of the aerotropolis programme in Ekurhuleni, the five-year Strategic Implementation Plan has identified 10 economic clusters that will be prioritised for development in Ekurhuleni.
The mayor and the Ekurhuleni delegation are expected back in the country in a couple of weeks.
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