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Roundtable seminars on
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
and business to business meetings.
SA HOSTS THE BIGGEST EVER ITALIAN
BUSINESS FORUM
The Sandton Convention
is bound to be abuzz with activity as
South Africa would be host to a powerful
Italian business and trade delegation,
which is dubbed the biggest Italy &endash;
South Africa Business Forum in the history
of both countries.
 On
his official visit to Italy in 2006,
President Thabo Mbeki confirmed that
"South Africa is open for business" and
implored the Italian Business Community to
"forge greater ties with their South
African counterparts". As a consequence
the Italian Confindustria (Conference of
Leading Italian Companies) made contact
with Business Unity South Africa (BUSA)
and they both agreed, with the support of
the South African and Italian Governments
to bring a 250-strong influential Italian
business delegation to South Africa. This
delegation represents over 120 Italian
companies from a cross-section of sectors,
including tourism, financial services,
construction, biotechnology, automotives,
machinery, agro processing and
chemicals.
"BUSA represents South
African business on macro-economic and
high-level issues that affect it at the
national and international levels. Its
function is to ensure that business plays
a constructive role in the country's
economic growth, development and
transformation and to create an
environment, in which businesses of all
sizes and in all sectors can thrive,
expand and be competitive" commented its
CEO, Jerry Vilakazi. BUSA, which would be
driving the South Africa chapter of this
initiative, was created in October 2003
through the merger of the Black Business
Council and Business South Africa and
began operating in January
2004.
The delegation will be
jointly led by the Italian Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mr Massimo D'Alema and Dr Luca Cordero di
Montezemolo, President of Confindustria.
Of the 250 Italian business delegation
that would be descending to the South
African shores, 70% of its constitution
would be interested in business to
business trade relations while 30% would
be eager to seek investment opportunities.
"We are excited at the
prospect of visiting your beautiful
country, exchanging ideas and forging
business ties that I am confident would
sustain for many years to come" said Dr
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
Some of the major
highlights at the event
include:
Key note addresses by
H.E. Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Deputy
President of the Republic of South Africa,
and H.E. Mr Massimo D'Alema, Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister of
Italy.
Statements by the Trade
Ministers of South Africa and
Italy.
Roundtable seminars on
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 and business to
business meetings.
Tourism
Seminar
The thrust of the
tourism seminar, which is to be led by the
Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism (DEAT), is to inform the Italian
delegation about tourism investment
projects, infrastructure, marketing
initiatives and the state of readiness for
the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. This in
response to the desire by the Italian
Association of Tour Operators (ASTOI) to
obtain information in the above regard and
to make contact with their South African
counterparts with the view of exploring
trade as well as investment opportunities
with companies in Italy.
Accordingly, this
seminar would be attended by a myriad of
the South African tourism industry players
&endash; travel agents, tour operators,
hospitality representatives, membership of
tourism enterprise programmes (SMME's),
tourism associations, tourism statutory
bodies as well as senior government
officials.
"We see this seminar as
a great platform for the building of
business partnerships, joint ventures and
sustainable mutual investment in tourism
projects" said Ms Patience Molokoza,
Director: Tourism International Relations
at DEAT.
The Italian tourist
market has been growing steadily since
2000 (38, 195) to 2005 (51, 464) with the
number of nights stayed and spent growing
significantly. The Western Cape is the
most visited province (65.0%), contesting
with Gauteng (48.0%), which is trailed by
KwaZulu Natal (39.0%). "Our challenge is
to develop tourism packages in the less
visited provinces that appeal and are
agreeable with the Italian market" said
Sthuthukile Zungu, Manager in Italy for
South African Tourism.
Crafters and tourism
SMME's would also be provided with a
platform at the Business Forum and the
tourism seminar to exhibit their products
and thus make business linkages. Dr Fikile
Dilika, Chief Director, Investing in
Culture: at the Department of Arts and
Culture believes that "events such this
provides ample space for our cultural
products to be displayed and
consumed".
Edwin Sipho
Rihlamvu
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