On October 1-2, 2015, in Cape Town, the second South Africa-Italy Summit took place, an initiative developed and promoted by The European House – Ambrosetti in collaboration with Grown Consulting, partner of The European House – Ambrosetti in South Africa.
The goal of the summit is to build a select community of business leaders to grow their companies in the two countries and continents.
Taking part in this second summit were over 150 heads of Italian and South African companies, economists and representatives government, an increase of 30% over last year’s attendees. Present were the “national champions” who do business in South Africa and the most important South African companies. Even more so than the first year, concrete business relationships were created as a result of one-to-one meetings between the leaders which took place outside formal Summit events. In addition, the presence of Riccardo Monti, President of ITA, two South African ministers (Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry and Lindiwe Zulu, Minister for the Development of SMEs) and the Prime Minister of Gauteng David Makhura unquestionably contributed to raising the level of the discussions.
Many issues were discussed during this second Summit, all of them at the center of current debate in South Africa. Specifically this year, three position papers were presented:
The Gala Dinner on Friday 1st October was the occasion to present a social initiative in support of young entrepreneurs. It is a common platform between Italy and South Africa to launch and include the work of young African entrepreneurs in both markets. The proposal is the result of the collaboration between the Mara Foundation and the National Youth Development Agency. “It is an initiative that has been adopted by The European House-Ambrosetti. The mentorship program,” as Neo Masombuka, Partner in Grown Consulting explained, “will initially target seven young entrepreneurs who will receive training over the next six months from some of the leaders who participated in the Summit.”
