RED Door opens for Summit
1 June 2005
The Western Cape's small business support initiative, the RED Door, will this week receive international recognition, when delegates attending the Africa Economic Summit 2005, visit the Khayelitsha centre to study its success.
More than 700 high-profile delegates from across the African continent and the globe are attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) organised summit.
The Africa Economic Summit is an annual gathering of business, political and civil society leaders. The summit serves as a forum for these leaders to discuss and address the major development challenges facing the African continent.
On 2 June summit delegates will visit the Khayelitsha RED Door centre to study the one-stop business advice concept developed by the initiative.
Haiko Alfeld, the WEF's director for Africa said: "Small enterprises are an important driver of growth and poverty reduction in Africa. They are a primary source of jobs and economic
opportunities, yet many small businesses face serious constraints to growth, including the lack of access to capital, business skills and information, infrastructure and technology.
"The RED Door concept perhaps offers a way out of this logjam. We have heard very good news about this concept and wanted our delegates to experience it firsthand," he added.
The Real Enterprise Development initiative, or RED Door, is aimed at harnessing and increasing the entrepreneurial drive of Western Cape citizens. It offers advice and support to those who are unemployed and who wish to run their own enterprises.
Western Cape Minister of Finance, Lynne Brown, has applauded the decision of the Africa Economic Summit delegates to study the RED Door initiative.
She said she hoped "the delegates will also share some of their valuable experiences, so that this concept can be grown even further".
The Western Cape Government's decision to set up the Red Door initiative was
supported by international research, which showed that the small business sector is instrumental in denting unemployment.
About 26% or just over 500 000 of the Western Cape's population is unemployed.
According the the Western Cape provincial government, the first RED Door offices were opened in Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain in November 2004. Since then five other RED Doors have opened in Hermanus, Paarl, Atlantis, Knysna and Oudtshoorn. The provincial government plans to open 30 RED Door offices across the province over the next three years.
About R110 million has been budgeted for the RED Door offices over the same period.
Since opening in November the RED Doors have helped small business owners win tenders worth about R11 million.
"We are convinced that the RED Door will help us immensely in the fight against unemployment," said Brown.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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