EThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba delivers opening remarks at the Presidential eThekwini Working Group(PEWG) Media Round Table on Thursday.
The Presidential eThekwini Working Group has set its sights on boosting the economy as its next area of focus in the municipality. A group of experts to look into this next step is being set up and will meet in the coming weeks to discuss its terms of reference. The business community said a lot has been achieved over the past two years, and the next target is to focus on the economic development of the city.
Yesterday, the eThekwini Mayor, Cyril Xaba, briefed the public on the achievements to date including addressing water challenges, infrastructure improvements, and investment in key industrial areas in the city.
Andrzej Kiepiela, coordinator of the KwaZulu-Natal Growth Coalition, said the next step is economic growth. “Over the last two years, we have realised we have to concentrate more specifically on economic development. Therefore, the Director-General in the Ministry of Tourism was asked by the President’s Office to lead that team of this stream; there are several streams working on the city.”
“We have had preliminary meetings, worked out priorities of what we should concentrate on, and we are meeting in the coming weeks for workshops to agree on strategy, who will participate, and what the outcome will be over what period of time. “There is no question that since it was formed, there have been a number of marked improvements in terms of doing business in KwaZulu-Natal. The city has been cleaned up and started to function; tourism has bounced back, and logistics are improving. There are big development projects that have emerged that will stimulate the economy in terms of tourism,” he said.
