Speech by the City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille
Mayor De Lille welcomes delegation from Izmir, Turkey
Note to editors: the following is an extract from a speech delivered by the
City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, at briefing with a delegation from the
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, from Turkey. The delegation was led by the
Deputy Mayor of Izmir, in the absence of Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu following the
death of his mother.
Deputy Mayor of Izmir, Mr Muzaffer Tunçağ
Honorary Consul of South Africa in Izmir, Mr Tamer Taşkın
Executive Deputy Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Alderman Ian Neilson
City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Members and Executive Directors
Executive Director of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, Mr Sid Peimer
Chief Executive Officer of Wesgro, Tim Harris
Chief Executive Officer of Cape Town Tourism, Enver Duminy
The remaining members of the Izmir delegation
Good morning,
We are very excited to welcome your delegation here to Cape Town to
further strengthen relations between our two cities by discussing practical
projects and activities which can map out the way forward.
As we both know, the cooperation agreement which we signed in
December 2014 focuses on trade and investment, environmental planning
and protection, health services, organic agriculture, rural development,
infrastructure, cultural, artistic, and sports activities, best practice pertaining
to municipal services, and institutional capacity enhancements.
I look forward to fleshing out the ways in which we can collaborate in these
areas during the next two days.
Since we signed the agreement, we have been able to materialise some of
the goals we set out to reach together.
I am aware that communication with our transport authority, Transport for
Cape Town, has already begun with discussions on points of interest with
regard to the bicycle share programme which is an overwhelming success in
Izmir.
Izmir currently has at least 40 km of custom bicycle lanes, and since there is a
big demand from the public, they are planning to extend these lanes.
Residents must register to use the bicycles, and the lanes are also open for
the public to utilise as walkways.
We committed to provide the Aegean Chamber of Industry, Izmir Chamber
of Commerce, Aegean Free Zone, and Izmir Ataturk Organised Industrial
Zone with proposals on how to increase tourism, trade and investment levels
between the two cities.
We are enthusiastic about sharing that knowledge from Wesgro and Cape
Town Tourism here today.
We have sent through a proposal from Cape Town Tourism on the viability of
an exchange tour between our two cities where business people, travel
agents and others from Cape Town and Izmir exchange knowledge and
experiences.
In October 2015, Turkish Airlines started direct flights between Cape Town and
Istanbul. We appreciate this as a good foundation to build increased tourism
between our regions.
For your stay, we have arranged a series of presentations so we can
strengthen the progress already made thus far.
The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry will give an overview of the
Chamber and its members in order to see how they can be of assistance in
terms of increasing trade and ease of business.
Wesgro will highlight the similarities between Izmir and the Cape Town and
Western Cape province economies and possible sectors of collaboration.
Wesgro will also refer to the Air Access Project, which could start talks on a
possible direct flight between Cape Town and Izmir.
Cape Town Tourism will share some insights on the tourism performance in the
City of Cape Town for the full year of 2015, and ways in which we can
collaborate to improve this performance.
The Cape Town International Convention Centre will discuss possible
synergies between Cape Town and Izmir regarding the hosting of big events
and commence a conversation on possible collaboration and knowledge
sharing.
Accelerate Cape Town will provide a brief overview of their work before
exploring economic growth opportunities for the region.
Deputy Mayor and your delegation, once again welcome to Cape Town.
We look forward to the presentations that you will make, and the subsequent
growth of our partnership.
I thank you. God bless.