Programme Director,
Your Worship the Mayor of eThekwini Municipality, Cllr James Nxumalo,
Eminent speakers who will address this conference,
Delegates attending this conference,
Dignitaries Present,
Members of the media present,
Ladies and gentlemen.
All protocol observed.
Firstly, I wish to extend our sincere gratitude to all of you for responding positively when we cordially invited you to join us in this second edition of the annual International Entrepreneurship & Investment Conference.
On behalf of the KwaZulu-Natal government I would like to welcome each and everyone you and for our friends from outside the boundaries of our province and the borders of our country, we are hopeful that you will have a memorable stay in our province, and more importantly your participation in this event will make an immeasurable contribution towards the identification of solutions that could be used to propel KwaZulu-Natal’s economy to greater heights.
We know that cocktail functions are supposed to be less formal sessions to create a social environment for parties to know each other before getting into real business. We would also have loved to stick to that tradition, but for us this is one of the most significant occasions that we can’t afford to miss the opportunity to adequately tell the story of our beautiful province. The nature of this event also obliges us to share with our stakeholders the roots and reason d’etre for this conference.
When we converged in this same convention centre last year, we made a clear declaration that we intended to make this event an annual feature in our calendar because we believe that for KwaZulu-Natal to secure a sustainable place in the highly competitive global economy, we have to create an avenue where we are able to continuously share ideas with the rest of the world on what we want to achieve as a province in our quest to be part of the global economy. In turn, we want the world to tell us what is that we could do better to achieve our socio-economic objectives.
The establishment of this conference was therefore driven by the desire to attract the best economic and business brains that the world could offer – and urge them to share their experiences that would in turn help us develop and sharpen policies and strategies that would see KwaZulu-Natal developing into an economic success story – capitalising amongst other things, on its strategic location on the country’s eastern sea-board that is enhanced by the world’s best trading logistics such as the two ports of Durban and Richards Bay, as well as the relatively new King Shaka International Airport.
As we meet for the second edition of this important gathering, we are more than confident that this year’s proceedings will be characterised by intense, but enriching debate to produce practical inputs to assist the province identify its competitive advantages that should be exploited for maximum growth to help unleash business and employment opportunities for our people.
Changes in the global trade remind us that no nation could operate in isolation from the rest of the world and, at the same time, it becomes essential that whilst we are content with existing relations we have with many countries that, we also explore collaborations and relations with other alternative market destinations and sources to respond to the ever fluid global economy.
As we all know, KwaZulu-Natal is the second largest province in the country in terms of its contribution to the national gross domestic product. However, with respect to population figures, we are the most populous province with high levels of poverty and under-development. But, we are determined to reverse this since we believe the province has potential to become the region’s economic hub based on a number of factors that include its strategic location, as mentioned earlier, that suits the trading nations of the world.
We therefore need to come up with practical steps to unleash this potential and this could only happen if we work in tandem with the rest of the world where we access innovative and creative strategies that could be integrated into our programmes directed at activating those sectors identified as the mainstays for the province’s growth prospect.
Notwithstanding the province’s current economic performance, mainly due to the crippling global recession, we are nevertheless bullish about the future and the gatherings of this nature do offer us the platform to rethink our priorities, plans and actions to ensure that we become dexterous against economic turbulences in the future. This requires extensive investment in skills development to cater for the needs of each sector of our economy. Though recent figures illustrate a 3.2% national growth rate in the second quarter of this year, KwaZulu-Natal scaled down from 3.7% in the first quarter to record a mere 2.1% growth – and this was attributed to the slump mainly in the manufacturing sector related to the dwindling exports due to recessionary conditions in the global market.
In a nutshell, programme director, we are called upon to devise new strategies to deal with what economists refer to as the “new normal” following the 2008 global economic downturn. Diversification of market destinations by seeking new markets as alternatives to our traditional European and North American trading partners has been raised as one of the possible solutions. The new economic order impels us to reconsider our positions by acknowledging that the developing world offers more opportunities than it used to be in the past.
The recent jitters in the global markets have illustrated that we have to diversify our approach and improve our trade relations with the emerging markets. We have seen nations such as China, India and Brazil flexing their muscle amid unpalatable recessionary conditions and one of the fundamental reasons why we have BRICS today, with South Africa forming part of this powerful league of these emerging economies, was that we have appreciated that the future lies in the developing world.
However, for us to be relevant and able to survive in the fast growing competition in the global market, we have to develop certain traits that are amenable to an entrepreneurial culture which becomes the bed-rock on which investors could build on. It’s critical that potential investors when landing on our province they find a blooming entrepreneurial spirit which serves as a foundation for industrial expansion – and the name of this conference emerged out our of acknowledgement that sustainable socio-economic development and growth hinges on paying equitable attention to the prevalence of entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to attract investments.
The nations that have recorded significant economic advancements could count amongst key ingredients for growth, the existence of entrepreneurship and whenever potential investors are encouraged to come and do business in any localities, they would be guaranteed of an environment that is supported by an ingrained culture of a hard working, innovative and industrious business community. The coinage of International Entrepreneurship & Investment Conference was born out of acknowledgement that entrepreneurship and investment are just two sides of a single coin that require equal appreciation.
In view of the prevailing economic conditions the world over, this year we have opted for a more relevant discussion topic that, in the main, seeks to identify what could be regarded as the best business and industrial practices that make successful national and regional economies to build strong foundation for future socio-economic prosperity.
Dubbed Positioning KwaZulu-Natal at the Epicentre of Africa’s Sustainable Economic Growth and Development, our theme which is pillared by well thought sub-topics was influenced by the appreciation that Africa could no longer allow itself to operate on the fringes of the global economy whereas it is endowed with massive natural resources.
In KwaZulu-Natal, therefore, we believe that our symbiotic link to the continent makes us, as a province, no minors to position ourselves as a suitable stage where the world could meet to discuss pertinent issues relating to the development of our continent which would imply our collective benefit as a province, country, region and the world at large.
The phenomenon of globalisation has generated a new adage that while we should think locally, our long term and sustainable development would be determined by the level of our actions at global level. This implies that when we should be fascinated with our own state of development as the province, region and continent, we also have an obligation to integrate our thoughts and actions to the global market. The IEI is the correct platform where we should discuss and emerge with strategies that succinctly illustrate Africa’s strengths which will then assist KwaZulu-Natal and the rest of the region establish its niche which we have to exploit to ensure sustainable development.
As a province we have been encouraged by the fact that despite historical perceptions that Africa is the most relevant case study for what constitute the vestiges of under-development, the continent is gradually moving out of the socio-economic doldrums – with at least ten of the fast growing nations in the world market coming from this continent.
KwaZulu-Natal wants to be at the centre of this African upsurge and we believe we have all the basic necessities to play a role and hence your contribution in the reservoir of ideas to be cross-pollinated during the conference deliberations will be critical in our planning for the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I wasn’t meant to make a speech, but I think it’s worth illustrating upfront the level of expectations and anticipation we have for this conference to contribute towards sustainable development and growth of our provincial, national and regional economy which would have pin-offs for the rest of the trading world. I therefore implore you to enjoy the evening through this social interaction and networking which we believe would help create a favourable atmosphere to begin serious programme for the next two days.
We want to emerge out of this conference more enlightened and wiser than we were before. This would depend on our individual and collective commitment to the sharing of our experiences and ideas that could make KwaZulu-Natal one of the key participants in the global economy. The fact that we have assembled the best economic and business brains drawn from all corners of the world raises the bar in terms of expectations for another resounding successful conference.
Amongst us here we have experts representing various disciplines that include government, business and academia and hence the outcome of this event should serve as a reference for future sessions. The reason we have all of us here, is because we believe that the combination of varied streams could only enrich the prospect of our socio-economic development.
In conclusion, programme director, allow me to quote one of the world’s most recognised entrepreneurs and a friend of our country, the head of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson when he said: “It (South Africa) is a crucible of youth and energy, a melting pot of original ideas, and things that work there do so faster than in many other places because of this urge to progress. For this reason, entrepreneurs, business people, health professionals and educators might benefit by studying the South African model”.
This excerpt, while a source of pride for it acknowledges the unique spirit and outlook that the people of our country possess, is also a challenge for it demands that we live up to this billing and, in order to do that, we must be better than what we were yesterday. This conference is definitely about us living up to this billing. We dare not disappoint.
I thank you.
Province
