2018 South Africa-Italy Indaba/Summit set to boost EU-Africa trade and investment relations

Over 200 high-powered business and political leaders will attend the fifth edition of the South Africa-Italy Indaba/Summit, which will host the exclusive Africa Europe CEO Dialogue.

Confirmed speakers attending and participating at the event include: Trevor Manuel President’s Special Envoy on investment South Africa; Jeff Radebe, Minister of Energy South Africa; Lorenzo Fioramonti Deputy Minister of Education, University and Research Italy; Bernadette Jagger, Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Namibia; Joel Biggie Matiza, Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Zimbabwe; and Peya Mushelenge, Minister of Urban and Rural Development Namibia.

The event will be held from 23-24 October 2018 at the Maslow Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Since launching in Cape Town in 2014, the annual South Africa-Italy Indaba/Summit has sought to strengthen economic ties between the two nations, which already share a rich and mutually-beneficial relationship.

Having built a solid foundation over the preceding four years, the globally-acclaimed think tank, The European House – Ambrosetti, now plans to leverage the platform it has created with this event to expand the reach and impact of the summit.

“The aim of the South Africa Italy Indaba/Summit is to strengthen bilateral relations in the broader regional and global political economic environment. We want to build on a permanent, exclusive and influential community of business and political leaders from South Africa, southern Africa, Italy and Europe to encourage cooperation to grow their enterprises, their countries, and their continents,” says Paolo Borzatta, Senior Partner at The European House - Ambrosetti.

Over 120 Italian companies have invested in South Africa and are making a valuable contribution to the local economy by using the country as their base for African operations.

The summit was inspired by the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the governments of South Africa and Italy at the “Regions of Africa Europe Forum” in Taormina in 2012. The two governments committed themselves to promoting bi-lateral trade and investment between their countries.

“The vision for the Africa Europe CEO Dialogue is to create a pan-African and European strategic hub for high-level networking in southern Africa. The platform will accelerate business and investment relations, unlock growth opportunities and boost competitiveness through interactions between key decision makers in business and government,” explains Nico de Kock, local representative for The European House – Ambrosetti.

Borzatta believes that by boosting private-public partnerships in the region, by strengthening ties between Europe and Africa, the economies of the two continents will grow faster together.

“We believe that the Africa Europe CEO Dialogue will create the perfect platform to establish these partnerships, to benefit both the European and Africa enterprises that attend,” he concludes.