Cape Town to up its act

The organisation grew out of regular discussion sessions during 2006 and early 2007 held by a group of some 30 influential Cape business leaders. They were brought together by a common concern over the lack of pace and direction of change in the Cape and particularly the inability to attract and retain new and established businesses and talented young professionals. These discussions led to the formal establishment of ACT in March 2007.

Accelerate Cape Town's vision is a simple, yet demanding one: to develop and accelerate Cape Town and its surrounding region towards becoming a global capital of Creativity and Innovation and for the region to be recognized as one of the best cities in the world in which to do business. ACT aims to do this through informing and influencing the long-term strategies of business, government, labour and civil society.

According to CEO Guy Lundy, “Our function is to develop leading thinking on how we can accelerate inclusive growth in Cape Town and its surrounding towns and to use our network of leaders to make the case to government for a framework of policy and investment that ensures Cape Town can become and remains a globally competitive business destination.

“At the same time we will push business to work towards these same goals. Our concern is that if we do not act now in the interests of our long-term future, we will continue to fall behind cities like Johannesburg, Dubai, Barcelona, Bangalore and others as a recognized and respected place to live, work and do international business.”

ACT's current Corporate Sponsors are Old Mutual, KPMG and BP and its organisational membership is growing steadily, already including companies like Coronation, Cadiz, Safmarine, Nedbank, Cliffe Dekker and Pam Golding Properties amongst others.