- Title: SOUTH AFRICA-WEF AFRICA SA hosts World Economic Forum on Africa
- Date: 4th June 2015
- Summary: WOMEN SINGING AT NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 19th June 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA8A66SBOQYCAT97G0FGKX719C1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Regional and world leaders in business, government and civil society are meeting in Cape Town for the World Economic Forum on Africa 2015 to share ideas and discuss opportunities for the continent.
One of this year's focal points will be how far the continent has come since the inception of the gathering 25 years ago.
The forum comes at a time when South Africa is hard pressed to mend its image worldwide after a spate of xenophobic violence in April that killed at least 7 people. Televised images of armed gangs attacking immigrants and looting foreign-owned stores dealt a heavy blow to the reputation of Africa's most advanced economy.
South African Business mogul Patrice Motsepe, one of the co-chairs of the forum said African economies needed each other.
"Xenophobia... South Africa in particular, our future is inextricably intertwined with the future of the continent. We have to be a country that welcomes and creates a dispensation that allows all Africans and people from all over the world to do well. The best economies in the world have grown on the back of creating an environment that is tolerant but also accommodating," said Motsepe.
Critics of the WEF say it is an expensive gathering of the rich that is out of touch with the majority poor on the continent, but organisers disagree, saying the ideas discussed at the meetings have played a major role in developing the continent's economies.
The Africa Development Bank said last week that African economies will grow 4.5 percent this year and 5 percent in 2016 due to rising demand for exports, closer to their levels before the global economic crisis.
"Being together for two or three day.... don't underestimate the power of having these people meet and talk and exchange ideas and create new projects and concepts to drive things forward. Africa has done well, the continent has grown consistently for about 5 percent. It needs to grow to the five, six, seven percent if we really want to give everybody a chance and develop everybody, so the growth is actually encouraging compared to the rest of the world but it is below what we need if we want to lift the people out of poverty," said Paul Polman, Unilever CEO.
Other key issues being discussed at the forum is the great need for more women to take part in leadership and business.
Of the world's 28 countries that have reached or exceeded the 30 percent mark for women's representation in politics, eight are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a UN Women report in 2011. In Rwanda, 51 percent of parliamentarians are women - the highest level of women's representation in the world.
But more needs to be done to address inequalities and gender abuses in many African nations.
"A lot of women around the world have several issues, several challenges and most times we do not have enough women in power to speak up for us so it's a double jeopardy, you have all these issues and you don't have people to speak for you and the few who stand up to speak, most times are not loud enough," said Nigerian actress and activist Omotola Jalade Ekeinde.
The economic potential of mobile telephony was also a key theme.
China's Huawei Technologies company said it expects to double smartphone device import to South Africa, reaching 2 million this year.
Huawei is keen to take advantage of Africa's smartphone growth potential, which analysts suggest will continue to boom as cheaper phones accelerate penetration that will rise from about 79 million at end 2012 to 412 million by 2018.
Besides South Africa, Huawei is eyeing greater investments in Angola, Nigeria, Egypt and Mozambique.
"If the population is there it means that the opportunities are there, so look at the whole Africa Continent, South Africa is still the most fast growing area and in the rest of Africa, Nigeria and also in the north, Egypt and also in East Africa, Kenya and another country we pay a lot of attention to is Angola, in the past 15 years the GDP has grown for Angola quite well," said David Wang, southern and eastern Africa regional VP for Huawei.
The forum, which kicked off on Wednesday, (June 4) ends on Friday (June 5). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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