from FUTHI MBHELE in Durban, South Africa
KwaZulu Natal Bureau
DURBAN, (CAJ News) – THE announcement of Durban as the host of the 2023 World Congress of Angel Investors is a major boost for tourism in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province.
This year’s edition has been held in Turkey, where 1 300 delegates from all over the world attended.
The conference is expected to come up with a clear roadmap for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small and medium enterprises in the post COVID-19 environment.
Siboniso Duma, the KZN Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, was among the attendees in Turkey.
He believes 2023 World Congress of Angel Investors was going to give the province’s tourism industry, which had been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest and the floods, a shot in the arm.
“We are exceedingly excited that 2023 World Congress of Angel Investors is coming home to our beloved province of KwaZulu-Natal,” Duma said.
“We are, indeed, chuffed at this development because this is a coup for our province. We believe that this development is a good omen for our conferencing and tourism industry,” Duma said.
The Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector has a global value of more than $800 billion.
“Our goal is to have a fair-slice of this by aggressively positioning our province as a conferencing destination of choice,” Duma said.
“For us to achieve this, we need to be both agile and dynamic in our approach and this announcement is a foretaste of great things yet to come,” Duma said.
Duma noted KZN is also known as the Gateway to Africa and the world.
The Organisation of African Union (OAU) metamorphosed into the African Union (AU) in Durban in 2002.
“We are proud that the AU was launched in our beautiful province – KwaZulu-Natal – in the city of eThekwini, Durban,” Duma explained.
Duma said the province was going to use the conference to mobilise funding for province’s SMMEs and Black Industrialist Programme and create strategic partnerships in order to build sustainable start-ups.
“The fact that the conference will be held here will open up opportunities for projects that would have ordinarily struggled to get finance.”
The World Business Angels Investment Forum is an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership of Financial Inclusion (GPFI).
– CAJ News