Following a year of hosting significant global events, Sandton Convention Centre (SCC) will close the year 2015 as the platform for the promotion of the African Agenda at two major development summits.
The SCC has been announced as the host venue for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Heads of State Summit and Sixth Ministerial Conference on 4 and 5 December, which will see Chinese President Xi Jinping paying a state visit to South Africa, hosted by President Jacob Zuma. The theme for the FOCAC Summit is ‘Africa-China Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development.’
On a recent visit to China, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ms MaiteNkoana-Mashabane discussed the Summit and said areas of cooperation have been identified between China and South Africa. “…these are economic cooperation, integration, industrialisation, beneficiation, health, poverty eradication, and peace and security in Africa. These are the exciting things we want to do with China.”
The massive Africities Summit 2015 – the mouthpiece for Africa’s 15 000 local governments from all regions of Africa – will take place at Sandton Convention Centre from 29 November to 2 December. This seventh Africities Summit is designed to link a clear understanding of likely future trends with strategic debate about what needs to be done at local level to address the emergency of service delivery, economic opportunities, safe and affordable mobility, and more.
“This is an exciting time for Africa as the region’s macro-economic prospects remain positive for the near and longer-term future and the continent looks ahead to opportunities for progress,” says Sandton Convention Centre Executive Director, Mati Nyazema. “We believe the high level Africa-focused Summits are crucially important to the development of the African continent and we are proud to be the host venue. We look forward to welcoming every delegate to these Summits and we wish them a productive time of innovative thinking and creative solutions for growth.”
It has been proven that the ease of access to Johannesburg and Sandton’s central location in the commercial heart of SA make it a magnet for such Pan-African events, and this contributes immensely to higher delegate numbers for Pan-African conferences. Earlier this year, Sandton Convention Centre successfully hosted the 25th Assembly of African Union Heads of State and Government for the organisation’s 54 member states as well as the My World of Tomorrow conference, amongst other globally significant events.
“We look forward to providing the venue for global events such as CITES 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP17), Arnold Sports Festival, and the International Commission on Large Dams in 2016,” concludes Nyazema.
