Insight into the African Renaissance Conference 2013

An inspiring time to be in Africa.

Highlights from the African Renaissance Conference 2013 held at the ICC in Durban.

The conference was off to a grand start with the Deputy President of South Africa in attendance and the Mayor of eThekwini.  Other dignitaries included the Chair of the African Renaissance Dr Ndebele and also the Minister in the Presidency:  National Planning Commission, Mr Trevor Manuel.

This was the 15th year of the conference.

Some of the highlights included:

• ‘We need partnerships with Private Business’  - Mayor of eThekwini.
• It is very easy to move from London to Paris, not so easy from SA to Mozambique – Dr Ndebele
• The ReGeneration believed in themselves, we are this ReGeneration – Dr Ndebele
• We need to do these things we can’t wait for others – Dr Ndebele
• What are we doing with what we have? – Dr Ndebele
• The African Renaissance Conference has been growing in leaps & bounds – Deputy President of South Africa
• The Deputy President left us with a quote he recalled, ‘We face neither east nor west, we face forward.’  
• SA belongs to all of us, united in our diversity – Trevor Manuel quoting the constitution.
• We must try not to oppose without offering solutions – Trevor Manuel
• Education is the start of so many things – Trevor Manuel
• Wheverever there is a challenge, there is an opportunity – Andy Openshaw, Nashua Communications
• We also heard from Carol Coetze from Ernst & Young and she showed us some interesting stats on what the people want.  The number one thing people want is to get rid of bribery and after that came transportation.

You might also like the African Renaissance Youth Conference which is held just before this conference with IgniteSA.  This Conference is aimed at the Youth of Africa and aims to inspire Young Entrepreneurs.  

Useful contacts there on Twitter are

Lyle Krause - @lylekrause

And Lynette Ntuli - @MsNtuli

All in all it was a very inspiring Conference and one came away from it with so many ideas.

A wonderful Conference for anyone who would like to do business in Africa.

There is so much opportunity in Africa.

For more info on this conference visit www.connectingafrica.info or www.ebandla.co.za

Email: info@connectingafrica.co.za

Follow some more of the highlights on Twitter using the hashtag #ARC2013

Article and Photo by Fred Felton (@fredfelton)

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