What is the logic behind these summits?
Entrepreneurship is different today than at any other point in history. There have been dramatic changes in the city. Traditional industries are not performing like they used to.
Large companies are struggling under the weight of the global economic downturn. Increased competition from smaller firms which seek to disrupt traditional means of doing business is changing today’s business landscape.
As the large multinationals scale down, it is inevitable that there will be greater pressure on the economy.
With unemployment currently at 27.7 per cent and youth unemployment at 38.6 per cent, people need new solutions. Entrepreneurs are key players in this quest.
What is the City of Johannesburg’s role?
There are opportunities available today that never existed five years ago. The City’s role needs to evolve to that of creating enabling environments and not fixing the economy.
A key part to assisting entrepreneurs is to help small to medium-sized businesses to collaborate with each other and foster relationships that will build an entrepreneurial ecosystem or network
that will bolster the enterprises, bolster the economy and create more jobs.
What is the point of the entrepreneurial summits and the symposium?
The objective of the symposium will be to create proactive sector focus working groups, formulated by sector, current activity and opportunities to form the entrepreneurship ecosystem. These groups will create action plans and deliver them to drive entrepreneurship opportunities going forward.
How will addressing entrepreneurial ecosystems or networks help the challenges of economic growth, job creation and unemployment?
Sustainable employment facilitation is one of the directorates of the Department of Economic Development. Its mandate is to actively intervene in the City’s economy to create conditions for
accelerated and sustainable economic growth as well as ensuring that the benefits and opportunities are equitably spread to all small and medium-sized businesses.
Creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem seeks to achieve this mandate by creating an environment that enables businesses in Johannesburg to prosper through creating policies that speak to the direct needs of entrepreneurs across all industry sectors.
Development of entrepreneurship means creating an enabling environment where a variety of constituents and role players can be effective in ensuring that businesses thrive.
Entrepreneurship ecosystems bring together human capital, markets, support, financial, policy and support and other factors to assist entrepreneurs in creating the ecosystems needed to help them grow.
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