The twenty-eighth World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which will be held in Cape Town, in September, will aim to address a number of key issues impacting inclusive development in the region.
These issues include supporting growth and integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area; creating high-quality employment opportunities and protecting workers in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR); employing drones to address health, infrastructure and other societal needs; using emerging technologies to advance healthcare and prepare for epidemics; and implementing growth strategies that address environmental challenges and deliver industrialisation.
“Africa’s successful development depends on building the right conditions for its new generation of entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders.
“This means smart, agile institutions; an enabling environment for innovation that includes access to skills and capital; and a determined approach by policy-makers to level the playing field and implement policies that prioritise sustainable, inclusive growth over short-term imperatives,” WEF executive committee member Elsie Kanza commented in a statement issued on Thursday.
The theme of this year’s meeting is ‘Shaping Inclusive Growth and Shared Futures in the 4IR’.
The meeting will be the first to be held in sub-Saharan Africa since 2017 and it falls in a year when 20 elections will take place across the region and nearly 100 days since South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took office.
Citing the World Bank, the WEF indicated that progress had been made politically in sub-Saharan Africa, and economic growth was also expected to accelerate modestly this year, from 3.1% in 2018, to an average of 3.6%.