Newton Park’s new cluster driven by common vision of impacting ease of doing business in the area

Today marks another milestone as businesses in Newton Park have come together as a collective to form a cluster to address service delivery and safety and security challenges impacting the ease of doing business in the area.

This is the 11th cluster to be established under the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber banner, adding to a long list of already operational clusters across the Metro including in the Baakens Valley, Beachfront, Deal Party, Fairview, Kariega, Neave/Korsten, North End, Perseverance and Struandale and Walmer.

To get things started, the team appointed an interim executive committee consisting of Dirk Erasmus (Online Innovations – Interim Chairperson), Deon van Zyl (PKF), Chris Wilke (Newton Park Neighbourhood Watch), Cassandra Lascelles (Amobia), Paola Horack (Chamber’s Overall Geographic Clusters Board Lead), Athina Langson (IDC), Hendre Schoeman (Bluekap Properties), Charmaine Hayes (RMB), Chantel van Heerden (Bellbuoy) and Denise van Huyssteen (Chamber CEO) to start with the groundwork to formalise the cluster.

Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen welcomed the move by businesses in Newton Park for establishing a cluster in their area, which is a strong commercial business hub in Nelson Mandela Bay. “These businesses now have the opportunity to unite around common priorities which should enable them as a collective, and backed by the Chamber, to address some of the challenges in the area.

“Since the establishment of the first geographic cluster in Perseverance over two years ago, there has been a growing awareness and buy-in to the need for businesses to play a proactive role in influencing the state of their operating environments. The reality is that for businesses to be viable, the basics need to work from reliable water, sanitation and electricity supply through to the roads,” she highlights. “This does not mean that we are naïve to the challenges around us but rather have embraced the approach of influencing what’s within our control and collaborating with whoever will do the right thing. Ultimately all our actions are driven by what’s in the best interests of the economy and jobs as a whole.”

“Essentially, if we want to stay in business, we need to care about what’s going on around us and step up and take action to influence positive change.  Sitting back and waiting for someone else to do something won’t achieve anything, and in fact will just result in the slide and decay continuing. Each one of us, no matter how small or big our businesses are, has critical strengths which can brought to the table to enable the development of out of the box solutions.”

“We thank those businesses who have volunteered their time and resources to become part of the collective to drive positive change in our Bay.  These contributions, no matter how big or small, can make a difference.”

The Chamber has incorporated its learnings into a How to Establish a Geographic Cluster Guide to enable the quicker and more efficient formation of clusters. “This demonstrates our commitment to ongoing experimentation and sharing of best practices, while at the same time promoting a simpler approach to enabling change through agility, speed and innovation.” “As a business community we have hope in the future – we know that this is the Bay of Opportunity. It starts with all of us believing in the potential and taking action to drive things forward in the right direction,” she says.

The newly appointed cluster chairperson Dirk Erasmus says “the establishment of this cluster is critical to the future of Newton Park which is currently facing several issues around safety and security. Now is the time for all business owners in Newton Park unite, collectively we can return Newton Park to a safe and flourishing business area.”