2010 World cup

2010 Home ~ 2010 Overview

 

2010 Host Stadium Links -
World cup cities in brief
Soccer City (FNB stadium) - Ellis Park - Loftus Versfeld - Royal Bafokeng - Nelson Mandela Bay Vodacom Park - Peter Mokaba - King Senzangakhona - Green Point - Mbombela Stadium

 

JOHANNESBURG

JOHANNESBURG is where the money is. It's the most powerful commercial centre on the African continent. It is an African city that works: the phones dial, the electricity grid is reliable, you can drink the water, there are multilane freeways, skyscrapers, conference centres, golf courses.

Johannesburg generates 16% of South Africa's GDP, and employs 12% of the national workforce. It has a financial, municipal, roads and telecommunications infrastructure that matches leading first world cities, yet the cost of living is far lower.

Johannesburg hosts every form of commercial activity from financial services to heavy industries and mining. There's hardly a major international company doing serious business in sub-Saharan Africa that has not looked to Johannesburg as the gateway to the continent.

Johannesburg is the capital of South Africa's smallest but wealthiest province - Gauteng, which generates 38% of the country's GDP, 26% of regional GDP and 9% of the whole continent's GDP. Gauteng's provincial government occupies a number of buildings in the central business district.

Johannesburg is one of the world's few large metropolitan areas to be based on neither an ocean port nor a major river. Yet, ironically, it is southern Africa's biggest port, thanks to a massive export/import railway freight facility called City Deep.

The International Airport is the busiest in Africa, waves through 13 million passengers a year. This is twice the number it handled only a decade ago - and a sizable chunk of the 87 million people who take to the continent's skies every year.

About 1,2 million of the people who pass through every year are business travellers. The airport handles more passengers than Cairo and Dubai airports do, which puts it on a par with Dublin's airport. Thanks to a recent upgrade, the airport has the capacity to grow to handle 22 million passengers a year.

About 300 000 tons of cargo pass through in a year, which makes this one of the major cargo hubs in sub-Saharan Africa. Twice in a row, the airport has won the Best Airport in Africa award from Skytrax, a British airline research company, based on the opinions of travellers from 80 countries.

And a survey of the UK's Transportation Research Laboratory rated the airport one of the most cost-effective in the world. The airport has been the subject of one of Gauteng's largest infrastructure upgrades: since 1998 R850-million has been spent almost entirely rebuilding the main terminals, the parking and public-transport facilities, and the road network around the airport.

Johannesburg is where the deals are made. It's the most powerful commercial centre on the African continent. There's hardly a major international company doing serious business in sub-Saharan Africa that has not looked to Johannesburg as the gateway.

Johannesburg generates 16% of South Africa's wealth, and employs 12% of the national workforce. Some 74% of South African companies have their headquarters here. It has a financial, municipal, roads and telecommunications infrastructure that matches leading first world cities, but the cost of living is much lower. Johannesburg hosts every form of commercial activity from modern financial services to heavy industries and mining.

Johannesburg is the capital of South Africa's smallest but wealthiest province - Gauteng, which generates 38% of the country's GDP, 26% of regional GDP and 9% of the whole continent's GDP.

The city's economy is dominated by four sectors, three of which are service sectors:

* Financial and business services
* Retail and wholesale trade
* Community and social services
* Manufacturing


The city's manufacturing sector is shrinking, and there is increased emphasis today on more modern sectors such as information technology, telecommunications, film and media, research and development, and biomedical industries.

Johannesburg is the hub of southern Africa's transport network. The country's major international airport, serving 2.5 million international passengers a year, is on its outskirts. Johannesburg's City Deep freight terminal handles 30% of South Africa's exports and is classified as the fifth largest port in the world. The major national highways and rail routes radiate outwards from Johannesburg, making it a strategic choice for any business that relies on a complex distribution chain.

Johannesburg also has the most skilled workforce in the country. The city has a 20% advantage over the rest of the country in terms of literacy and numeracy skills.

The financial centre of the country, it is home to the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, the biggest stock exchange in Africa and the 16th biggest in the world. The major television companies are based in Johannesburg, as are most of the advertising agencies, most telecommunication companies, and most of the international accounting firms. The highest court in the land, the Constitutional Court, is in Johannesburg.

What advantages does Johannesburg offer the foreign investor?

The best access to markets across Africa
Political stability
Consistent economic policies, creating an investor-friendly climate with attractive incentives
Excellent infrastructure and a large labour pool
South African electricity prices are amongst the lowest in the world
Inexpensive land and low building costs