President Jacob Zuma will officially open the first ever Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Summit that will be held next week on 3 to 4 October at Gallagher Estate, Midrand.
The event will be hosted by the Department of Trade and industry (the dti) in collaboration with the Presidential B-BBEE Advisory Council. The Summit will take place under the theme “A Decade of Economic Empowerment (2003 to 2013)”.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the theme of the Summit will signify the celebration of 10 years of empowerment since the B-BBEE Act was promulgated in 2003.
“Much progress has been recorded since the initiation stages of the transformation and there is a lot to reflect on this past decade of transformation. Such enactment was followed by gazetting of the Codes of Good Practice in 2007, which provided an implementation framework for transformation,” he added.
According to Davies, through this Summit, the dti intends to re-orientate the framework and to reposition B-BBEE as a catalyst for economic growth and development, to demystify the myth of B-BBEE being viewed as non-productive and not growing the economy.
During the National Summit National, Provincial and Local government and its products and services that have been crafted to benefit the recipients of B-BBEE will be showcased. The Summit will also showcase the success stories and governments efforts
to ensure true and meaningful transformation and distribution of wealth and resources to the majority of South Africans.
This first ever Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Summit will create a platform for exhibitions, discussions and networking between micro enterprises and big businesses, government, state-owned enterprises, private businesses, labour and multinationals.
For accreditation: Members of the media are invited to attend the Summit and requested to send their names, ID numbers and media house to Malentswe Tshabalala on e-mail: MTshabalala@thedti.gov.za by Thursday, 26 September 2013 at 15h00 for accreditation purposes.
For enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Departmental Spokesperson
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti)
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
