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Most municipalities actively market their regions as tourism destinations, but Mubesko Africa MD Nico de Kock believes that the new frontier is destination marketing to at tract investors, funders, and new residents.

“Strategic destination marketing should never substitute tourism marketing as tourism is a lifeblood for many regions. The two should in fact complement each other. With funding becoming increasingly scarce, attracting investment will become very important for municipalities, and should form part of their strategic planning”,

says Nico.

While overall performance of the country may repel some investors, Nico believes that top-rated municipal regions can provide pockets of opportunities for investors.

Investor’s needs include:

  • A stable, solid environment with effective governance.
  • The ease of facilitating business opportunities.
  • Excellent prospects for growth.
  • The ability to enforce law and order.
  • A good social programme to discourage unrest.
  • An infrastructure which not only supports the investment’s progress, but also the employees of the investor.

“The human factor is also very important. Savvy investors will look at human capital in the region which extends to local colleges, their performance and what subjects are on of fer. Within the municipalities, mentoring, growth, and development of officials are key considerations. A municipality may well have achieved a clean audit and a high credit rating today, but is the next generation of leaders being developed to sustain performance?”

Municipalities should star t thinking about building their brands and reconsider what they are selling.

“The unimaginative answer is that they sell public services. This answer simply describes the sector that the municipality operates in. It is not what they of fer. The correct answer is that they sell what investors are looking for”.

 

Nico de Kock
Managing Director
Mubesko Africa
nico@mubesko.co.za
mubesko.co.za

Mubesko Africa is renowned for financial management, asset accounting and modelling, and forensic investigation support provided to some of South Africa’s top-rated municipalities.