EKURHULENI mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele jetted out to China on Friday on a mission to woo investors to invest in the city.
He will also attend the annual World Airport Cities Conference and Exhibition from May 13 to15.
In an attempt to turn the economy of Ekurhuleni around and create jobs, the metro adopted the aerotropolis concept as an economic growth trajectory a few years ago.
An aerotropolis is a city that anchors its economic activities around the existence of an international airport, in this case OR Tambo International Airport.
“We realise these interventions may not have the envisaged impact if they are not coupled with a systematic programme to crowd-in strategic investment into the city. We are therefore putting an effort towards the redistribution of the wealth of the city as envisaged in section 217 of the Constitution of South Africa,” Gungubele said.
“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 city and has ignited a new wave of investments in and around the airport catchment area, he explained.
“The implementation of the aerotropolis programme intends to balance the distribution of economic activity between the nine affluent areas and the 17 townships in the metro. 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 programme, the five-year strategic implementation plan has identified 10 economic clusters that will be prioritised for development.
Already the first wave of projects have been induced in the catchment area of the Aerotropolis: R300-million PRASA nerve centre building next Kaalfontein Station in Kempton Park as part of the R4-billion tender station upgrade programme by PRASA; academy in Isando; and R320-m extension of Emperors Palace.
Ekurhuleni has also recorded several interesting developments in and around the catchment area. To date, about R789-m has been invested in a number of projects along the Albertina Sisulu corridor creating at least 1 500 jobs.
As a result, the R21 Expressway now features buildings that house companies such as John Deere, DB Schenker, DBZ Eng, DHL Global Warehouse, DHL Global Head Office, Wurth, Jonson’s Workwear, TAL Warehouse, Fast Freight, DHL Supply Chain, DB Schenker, Takealot and many more.
“Judging from what has been happening around the OR Tambo International, it is clear that the aerotropolis has taken off in a big way and we cannot look back now,” Gungubele explains.
