{"id":12144,"date":"2010-09-12T10:01:43","date_gmt":"2010-09-12T08:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=12144"},"modified":"2011-11-06T07:39:07","modified_gmt":"2011-11-06T05:39:07","slug":"western-cape-winde-blows-a-storm-to-grow-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/western-cape-winde-blows-a-storm-to-grow-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Cape Winde blows a storm to grow economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00dcber-energetic Western Cape MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, seems to be sweeping out all the cobwebs of the Western Cape marketing agencies, by uniting 18 development and marketing agencies into what is to be called the Western Cape Economic Development Agency, in order to grow the economy and\u00a0thereby stimulate employment in the province, reports the Cape Argus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Minister created controversy a few weeks ago, when he announced that he wanted to amalgamate Cape Town Routes Unlimited and Cape Town Tourism, the tourism marketing organisations for the Western Cape and Cape Town, respectively.\u00a0\u00a0 This announcement met with a storm of protest by Cape Town Tourism in particular,\u00a0whose Board is not happy to “turn back the clock”<\/a> <\/strong>and have the wheel re-invented, as this discussion took place six years ago, and led to the formation of Cape Town Routes Unlimited in the first place.\u00a0 Cape Town Routes Unlimited has not been a success, especially since the City of Cape Town took away its R25 million marketing budget and gave it to Cape Town Tourism instead.\u00a0The Minister has not included Cape Town Tourism into the list of 18 agencies (yet)!<\/p>\n

The 18 Western Cape agencies that are to be united are the following:<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Town Routes Unlimited:\u00a0\u00a0 Western Cape tourism marketing agency<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Wesgro:\u00a0\u00a0 investment agency<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Craft and Design Institute:\u00a0\u00a0 stimulates the development of craft-making<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster:\u00a0\u00a0 develops programmes to benefit local clothing textile industry<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Film Commission:\u00a0\u00a0 marketing the Cape as a film destination (filming and post-production)<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 CallingtheCape:\u00a0\u00a0 promotes the Cape as a Call-Centre centre<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Biotech Trust:\u00a0\u00a0 promotes growth in biotechnology<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Information and Technology Initiative: promotes the IT industry<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Town Boatbuilding and Technology Initiative:\u00a0\u00a0 promotes boatbuilding and provides support services to members<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Music Industry Commission:\u00a0\u00a0 promotes growth in local music industy<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Cape Town Fashion Council:\u00a0\u00a0 communication centre for the local fashion industry<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Performing Arts Network South Africa:\u00a0 promotes and protects the performing arts<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Visual Arts Network South Africa:\u00a0\u00a0 supports artists<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Western Cape Furniture Initiative:\u00a0\u00a0 promotes furniture industry<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Western Cape Tooling Initiative:\u00a0\u00a0 revitalises the\u00a0Tool-and-Die Making industry<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 SA Oil and Gas Alliance:\u00a0 building on opportunities in oil and gas markets in\u00a0east and west Africa<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Western Cape Clothing and Textile Service Centre:\u00a0\u00a0 assisting small clothing companies to become competitive<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Learning Cape Initiative Agency:\u00a0\u00a0 drives skills development and training.<\/p>\n

The Minister announced that the\u00a0amalgamation is planned to take place over the next four years,\u00a0 and is geared at countering fragmentation and wastage due to duplication.\u00a0 The task of the new Economic Development Agency will be to boost growth in the Western Cape economy.\u00a0\u00a0 The model for the Minister’s new Agency is the London Development Agency.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00dcber-energetic Western Cape MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, seems to be sweeping out all the cobwebs of the Western Cape marketing agencies, by uniting 18 development and marketing agencies into what is to be called the Western Cape Economic Development Agency, in order to grow the economy and\u00a0thereby stimulate employment in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,22,21],"tags":[1317,7272,7273,7270,7269,7271,7274,7277,32366,7276,7278,108,85,32378,257,1602,7268,7275,7286,7287,7266,7288,7289,7283,7284,7280,515,32387,7285,7267,7281,7282,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t