Making Braam a tech-savvy neighbourhood
JOBURG – Putting in place a five-year plan to tech-up the city.
Technology has become the main focus of a number of companies that aim to work together to create our very own Silicon Braamfontein.
The city’s mayoral committee has confirmed that economic growth and entrepreneurship is the core focus of the City administration during the next five years. It added that they fully support ICT programmes and plans to build on the many successes that have been recorded as a result of the City’s clear focus on these areas.
Just what are some of the successful programmes that have been rolled out in the city to promote technological development?
- Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontein was launched last year with the help of Wits University and the City of Joburg to propel the area towards their 2020 goal of becoming a smart city, which will be a hub for technological start-ups and will also be well connected.
- The City of Joburg Educating Digital Interns programme was launched less than two years ago and, thus far 500 matriculants have been provided with four months of in-class training and six months of work experience with leading ICT corporates such as Microsoft.
- Hack.Jozi is the digital economy entrepreneurship challenge that gets residents of the city involved in conceptualising ideas that will improve the city and incubate promising start-ups that are projected to develop the city further.
- The Wits-based Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) was launched in 2005. Since 2014, the City, through its Department of Economic Development, has intensified its partnership with the university and invested in the installation of B-Wired fibre network to enable seamless connectivity.
Each of the institutions is working to make Braamfontein a technological hub in the future.
“Johannesburg is responsible for 40 per cent of the country’s GDP and for 10 per cent of the African continent’s GDP. Our city is home to a top-rated university. These facts will ensure that the Tshimologong Precinct becomes the digital hub of our new smart city – and the Silicon Valley of the African continent,” Ravi Naidoo, executive director of economic development in the City, said.
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