PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa will host the inaugural Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium of South Africa (SIDSSA) on June 23, the Presidency announced on Friday.
The symposium will be held under the theme “Investing in infrastructure for shared prosperity: now, next and beyond.”
Presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko said in a statement that the symposium comes at a critical juncture when South Africa charts a course for economic recovery in the post COVID-19 period.
“Government has affirmed that catalytic infrastructure investment can contribute to higher long-term growth, address spatial disparities, transform the economy and create much-needed jobs,” she said.
“The infrastructure projects earmarked to revive the economy will focus on the network industries of water, transport, energy and digital infrastructure as well as sectors with high job absorption capacity such human settlements, agriculture and agro-processing.”
The SIDSSA platform has been established by the Investment and Infrastructure Office in the Presidency, headed by Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
It has attracted sector specialists, technical and financial structuring experts and departments that have considered 177 infrastructure projects across public and private sectors.
DBSA was advanced R635 million to set up the R100 billion Infrastructure Fund to fund priority infrastructure projects.
The symposium is a culmination of a vigorous stakeholder consultative process over the past few weeks to mobilise support and cooperation on the revised Infrastructure Investment Plan.
The consultative process with stakeholders across the public and private sector was led by Ramokgopa and Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille.
The revised plan focuses on partnerships between the public and private sector for the delivery of sustainable, fit-for-purpose infrastructure.
The SIDSSA projects that will be gazetted after the symposium have been selected from an initial 177 that underwent a rigorous due diligence process.
The priority in the immediate term are those that best support the aims of government, which includes creating jobs, alleviating poverty, growing the economy, and promoting a better-quality life for all citizens.
The selection process culminated in a series of pitch sessions that afforded project sponsors an audience with over 60 national and international funding institutions.
These included multilateral development banks, development-finance institutions, asset managers, and commercial banks.
In addition to facilitating access to the funding that is needed to implement the projects, the SIDSSA process also seeks to overcome regulatory obstacles to infrastructure roll-out by developing a framework for fast-tracking approval processes and facilitating quicker executive decisions in the short term, and in the medium term as well as influencing legislation to support developmental imperatives.
The SIDSSA will be hosted virtually and will attract both a national and International audience. The speakers at the SIDSSA are all subject knowledge experts and will provide valuable insights on how to implement the Infrastructure Investment Plan successfully. All event updates can be found on www.sidssa.org.za.
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)
