Southern Africa Europe CEO Dialogue

THE DIGITAL ROUNDTABLE OUTLINE

Small operators are disproportionately affected the Covid-19 economic crisis and by the lockdown, because of their vulnerability to cash flow volatility and fluctuations in demand. However, SMMEs’ are key contributors to prosperity and innovation, as a vibrant SMME ecosystem allows all the entrepreneurial energies of a society to break out. Furthermore, vibrant SMMEs clusters not only increase inclusivity and equality, but they also increase competitiveness of localization of production strategies, becoming a key pillar of a country capacity to intercept global FDI flows. Therefore, the post pandemic recovery strategy cannot overlook SMMEs and their transformational potential, but on the contrary has to foster the creation of SMMEs’ clusters in strategic sectors. Both South Africa and Italy display a great potential in the development of SMEs: how can the two countries learn from each other experience for implementing effective SMMEs development strategies?

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The digital roundtable will gather representatives of SMMEs association and other relevant decision makers to address the main issues small operators are facing in the current volatile and uncertain scenario, devising concrete opportunity for business cooperation and policy circulation between South African and Italian players. The event is part of the Southern Africa Europe CEO Dialogue 2020, the referent event for the engagement of the Southern African and European business communities.

THE DIGITAL ROUNDTABLE OUTLINE

In the last years, cooperation between Italy and South Africa in the skills and education field has experienced major steps forward, as process in which the Roundtable “Higher Education and University Cooperation Between Europe”, organized last year within the Southern Africa Europe CEO Dialogue was an important milestone. After discussing last year how to improve university level cooperation, this year we will focus our attention on how to boost skills and competences in the manufacturing sector in general and in the automotive industry in particular, as a sector for both the Italian and South African industry. The Roundtable will discuss how Italy and South Africa can further cooperate in the sector and an important occasion to take stock of current projects. Furthermore, in the roundtable we will try to look at new frontier technologies and how Italy and South Africa could cooperate in this fields. The focus of our attention will be the recent dialogue between prominent Italian and South African institutions regarding Big Data and advanced computing, two strategic sectors that can enable improve competitiveness for the whole economy.

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The digital roundtable will gather actors in the educational cooperation between Italy (most notably Emilia Romagna Region) and South Africa, to assess the current state of cooperation projects activated in the past and to devise new concrete opportunity for skills cooperation. The event is part of the Southern Africa Europe CEO Dialogue 2020, which plenary sessions will be held the day before (November 26^th).

THE DIGITAL ROUNDTABLE OUTLINE

Packaging is a high-tech and highly transformative industry which is experiencing all the major disruptions of the present era, from the flexibility and speed required by the e-commerce growth and 4.0 technologies, to the challenges of safety in the battle against the virus. As a major contributor to the demand of plastics, packaging is also a key industry to build carbon neutral societies to achieve the international climate goals. However, a dynamic and competitive packaging industry is also an enabler of international growth and expansion, especially relevant for SMEs as it allows goods to arrive safely and efficiently and maximize profit margins.

In South Africa, the packaging industry is an advanced sector and rece ptive to innovation, with few large national and transnational companies engaged in the production of materials and packaging. On the other hand, Italy is a technological and market leader in the packaging machine industry, with a consolidated expertise in strategic sector for the development of South Africa – food and pharmaceuticals in particular.

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The digital roundtable will gather major industry players to address the main issue the industry is facing in the current volatile and uncertain scenario, devising concrete opportunity for business cooperation between South African and Italian players. The event is organized in partnership between The European House – Ambrosetti, the Italian South African Chamber of Commerce, and Unioncamere, and it is part of the Southern Africa Europe CEO Dialogue 2020.

THE DIGITAL ROUNDTABLE OUTLINE

The tourism industry is one of the hardest hit sectors of the economy by the Covid-19 economic crisis. With revenues falling by as much as 50% in 2020, tourism operators are facing an unprecedented challenge to devise new disease-proof models until the pandemic storm will be over. For both Italy and South Africa tourism is a major source of revenue and employment, contributing respectively to 13% and 8,6% of the two countries GDP. How can operators survive in the new normal and what policy makers can do to keep the sector in shape?

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The digital roundtable will gather representatives of the tourism industry from Europe and Africa, to address the main issues small operators are facing in the current volatile and uncertain scenario. The objective will be to devise concrete proposals and strategies for business and policy makers to make the industry thrive once again. The event is part of the Southern Africa Europe CEO Dialogue 2020, the referent event for the engagement of the Southern African and European business communities.