28th WEF Africa to address inclusive growth

The twenty-eighth World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF Africa) will focus on inclusive growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Discussions scheduled for the forum, aim at finding ways to achieve sustainable growth in a country with high levels of inequality, corruption and unemployment.

Elsie Kanza, WEF Africa head during a pre-WEF Africa press conference, held at IBM Research Africa, in Johannesburg, Monday, emphasised that 4IR needed to be embedded in humanity, and said the meeting, to be held in Cape Town from September 4 to 6, would explore how this could be implemented on the continent.

An integral part of this would be to explore opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, she noted.

Tito Mboweni, S.A’ finance minister stated that Industry 4.0 was a dynamic process and said the country would have to adapt accordingly, in a perpetual manner, rather than being ready for a fixed state.

In this vein, Kanza noted that there were some areas in 4IR where the country was making great strides and was leading, such as with the use of civilian drones.

WEF AFRICA

The forum is projected to convene 1 1 00 leaders from government, business and civil society, including ten heads of States or government.

A key point of the agenda at WEF Africa will be new partnerships to create sustainable employment for Africa’s large and growing workforce.

WEF Africa will focus on improving the funding and regulatory environment for start-ups; identifying opportunities for green growth such as the circular economy; increasing commerce for rapid business growth; and leveraging the new Africa Continent Free Trade Agreement to drive regional integration.

WEF Africa will also see the launch of several new initiatives.

This includes the Africa Growth Platform, a coalition of governments and investors aiming to fast-track development of the region’s most promising start-up enterprises and SMMEs, to facilitate their growth and assist them in competing internationally.

There will also be the Africa Risk Resilience Platform, which will assist government to prepare, mitigate and prevent climate and disease-related disasters the support of the private sector. Amidst the launch of the Africa e-commerce Agenda, a partnership between governments, the international trade community and the development community to create three million jobs by 2025