Chris van Gass

CAPE TOWN — Wesgro, Western Cape’s investment and trade promotion agency, is on course to achieve its target of attracting R5bn in direct investment by 2007, CE Ismail Docrat said yesterday.

Presenting the agency’s annual report for the five quarters ending March 31, Docrat said Wesgro had facilitated more than R2bn worth of new foreign and local investments in the period, well above the R700m the agency planned to reach during April last year and March this year.

Wesgro, which operates on a budget of R16,6m provided by the provincial government, the City of Cape Town and memberships, last year attracted R1,8bn in new investments, and doubled the number of exporting companies to 406.

Another achievement was launching the exporter development programme, focused on black- and women-owned enterprises and the non-metro areas.

It has made training available to 368 enterprises, against a target for the year of 100.

A boost has been initiating the western African trade corridor strategy to "significantly increase" trade and investment between Western Cape and African countries such as Nigeria and Angola.

"We are zoning in on key strategic markets along the West African coastlines including countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Angola," said Yusuf Pahad, chairman of the Wesgro Board.

"Among the sectors we have identified for linkages are oil and gas services, agriculture, infrastructure, transport and logistics services."

Docrat said Western Cape had outstripped the national gross domestic product growth of 3,1%, by posting real growth of 3,9%.

This was mainly due to the property boom, tourism and the country’s retail consumer boom, the Wesgro CE said.