Client: Western Cape Provincial Government
WESGRO is the official Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for the Western Cape and is expected to make an important contribution towards the above Provincial Strategic Objective. The main objective of is evaluation was to determine the contribution the agency has made towards Provincial economic growth and employment through promoting trade and investment. In addition, the evaluation involved the development of an M&E tool that is appropriate for monitoring of Wesgro’s trade and investment activities including its contribution towards Provincial economic growth and employment Key evaluation questions included: a) What investment into the Western Cape economy, and export orders from Western Cape companies has taken place between April 2009 – March 2012 by companies that have participated in one or more of Wesgro’s investment marketing and facilitation (inward and outward missions and after care services) and trade promotion activities (EDPs, Inward and Outward missions) b) How significant has Wesgro’s role been in supporting or influencing the above? c) How satisfied have these companies been with Wesgro’s role/ services? d) What is the quantified contribution / impact towards the Western Cape’s economic growth and job retention and creation between April 2009 – March 2012 of the economic activity identified in a) above (ideally to include both direct and indirect impacts) e) How can the monitoring of Wesgro’s contribution towards the Western Cape’s economic growth and job creation/ retention be improved for the future? Three sets of questionnaires were developed and surveys implemented for specific trade and investment stakeholder groupings: 1. Outward Selling Missions (trade: western cape companies) 2. Investors (inward missions to Wesgro investors in Wesgro’s pipe-line which Wesgro has interacted with since April 2009 – March 2012) 3. Aftercare (investors located in the Western Cape which Wesgro has interacted with since April 2009 – March 2012) 4. Export Development Programme (trade: western cape companies Recommendations were made to inform refinements to Wesgro’s M&E System as well as it’s lobbying role in improving the business investment climate. IPAs play a very strong role in monitoring the performance of key investment climate performance indicators and have dedicated capacity to play a strong role in addressing and resolving investment climate obstacles and improving investment climate performance indicators. The possibility of Wesgro including a performance indicator for “resolved investment climate issues” or for a specific business investment climate indicator should be investigated.
