Speech by the City’s Executive Mayor, Alderman
Patricia de Lille, at the opening of the Mining Indaba in
Cape Town
Mr Jonathan Moore, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Mining
Indaba,
Honoured guests,
Delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to Cape Town.
We have been the proud hosts of this important event for almost 20
years.
It remains one of our signature annual conferences, directly bringing in
revenue and trade and indirectly creating goodwill and new partnerships.
While we may have extremely limited mining activities in this part of the
country, we believe that we are becoming a centre for global business
that stretches beyond old boundaries.
As a city that looks to put design, innovation and excellence at the centre
of a complex network of dynamic relationships, we believe that we can
provide the space for a whole host of economic energies to meet and
establish something new.
In this regard, we seek to position ourselves as a place where the world
can access Africa and Africa can access the world, providing sophisticated
tertiary services, reliable infrastructure and advanced commercial and
banking practices.
This Indaba is taking place at a significant time in our history, as a
country and as a continent.
Today, we talk about Africa rising.
We talk about an emerging part of the world made up of a multitude of
exciting markets and countries.
We talk about a place of innovation and capacity for growth.
We are in essence talking about a new frontier of development.
We understand it as a continent of diverse countries and markets.
We understand these countries and markets as looking forward, not
backwards.
And we understand it in a context where the centre of the global economy
is shifting.
According to the World Bank, where the world had 63 Low Income
Countries in the year 2000, today we have 36.
Where we had 52 countries experiencing negative growth in the early
1990s, today we have 10.
Where only 20 developing countries achieved a growth rate of at least 2%
per capita in the early 1990s, today there are 69.
And in Africa, the number of democracies has increased almost five-fold
since 1960.
We are taking about a different world today.
We are talking about a different Africa.
Part of the reason for that has been due to the incredible growth of a
number of markets, especially in mining and commodities.
This makes the mining sector a critical factor when considering Africa’s
future.
And the discussion of that future here this week takes place in a different
South Africa.
While we may have a complicated history with the mining industry in our
country, it was a critical element of our past and it will remain a critical
element of our future.
While you have come from all over the world, I hope that you will
consider South Africa as an example of the deep connection between
mining business practices and the national contexts in which they
operate.
In conclusion, the matters that you will be discussing here are profound,
with many implications globally.
However, I am confident that solutions can be found for the challenges in
the mining sector.
I hope that those solutions will go a long way towards contributing to our
continent’s growth.
I hope that during your time here you will take stock of our excellent
infrastructure, our high level of education services – especially for the
private market, and the collection of tertiary services that support
business operations, and consider Cape Town as a great place to live and
work for those of you looking to set up regional African offices.
If you are interested in what we have to offer, please write to me at
mayor.mayor@capetown.gov.za and we will set up an appointment, along
with my team, to help you choose Cape Town as the place to invest in.
Please enjoy your stay with us and try and take a moment to explore the
natural beauty of our city beyond these conference rooms.
Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.