Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma on Friday night described the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa meeting held in Cape Town this week as having been a “tremendous success” and stated that it would have a positive impact on South Africa and the African continent.
In a statement, Zuma said the South African delegation, which comprised cabinet ministers, provincial premiers, deputy ministers, mayors of major cities, Brand SA ambasadors and business people had managed to market the country very well.
“It has been a successful forum and it was one of the best World Economic Forum on Africa meetings. We can confidently say we are happy as South Africa because we have achieved something for ourselves. The message was clear that South Africa and the African continent are ideal investment destinations and they are open for business,” Zuma said in a statement issued by the presidency.
“WEF organisers and participants from across the globe have praised South Africa for the manner in which we had hosted this forum. The WEF itself has said the participants in this forum were more active and forthcoming than in any other forums and this shows that many people are interested in South Africa and they are taking South Africa as a serious global player.
“This meeting has also shown that the interest in Africa is also growing. The continent is now able to speak more clearly about investment, there is now more clarity on infrastructure projects that are awaiting investment,” the president added.
The WEF on Africa meeting, which was attended by political leaders, business people, youth and civil society leaders from across the globe, discussed key and important issues of investment and infrastructure development in Africa.
Zuma said infrastructure had taken centre stage in many international forums and the forum on infrastructure development in particular received even bigger attention.
“During the forum there was a strong view that no country can develop optimally without proper infrastructure. Investors and governments are able to see that there is better coordination of infrastructure delivery and development finance institutions are coming on board and there’s political commitment by African leaders to invest more on infrastructure,” he added.
“As South Africa, we will therefore have a good report at the African Union Summit which is taking place next week in Johannesburg, as the matter of infrastructure will be one of the topics in the summit agenda,” he said.
ANA