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The DA in the Western Cape congratulates Innovation City (IC) on their outstanding growth and job-creation efforts in the past 18 months. Yesterday, I joined co-founder, Kieno Kammies, on a tour of IC to see the difference that the innovation-only community is making.

Innovation City is a community of digital start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, and entrepreneurs, that provides a space for effective networking and collaboration.

IC has hosted an impressive 150 events, including three impactful summits that brought together industry leaders. Major players in the tech world, such as Microsoft, Visa, Mastercard, Google, and WhatsApp, have chosen IC as the preferred venue for hosting key summits and conferences, which further contributes to Cape Town’s reputation as a tech hub.

With unemployment being at the root of many of our social problems, it is innovation like this that will lift our communities out of poverty, as it will always fall on the private sector to create jobs.

This belief is at the core of the Western Cape’s newly launched Growth for Jobs (G4J) Strategy, which sees the role of government as an enabling force in the economy, making it as easy as possible for our entrepreneurs and companies to grow and create employment.

Innovation City is an example of what can be achieved when the underlying foundation for success is laid by the government, and the market is allowed to flourish.

I will be sponsoring a debate on the merits of the Western Cape Government’s G4J strategy in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament this Thursday, where I will be making a strong argument in support of the government playing an enabling role in the economy.

Issued by Cayla Murray, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism