South Africa: Ambrosetti to launch Ceo platform for business

Cape Town - A TEH-A CEO Community for CEOs of South African and multinational companies operating in South Africa will be launched by Italian consulting group The European House - Ambrosetti (TEH-A) during the fourth edition of the South Africa-Italy Summit taking place from October 24-25 in Johannesburg. Paolo Borzatta, senior partner at TEH-A, made the announcement on Wednesday at the official launch of the 2017 summit in Johannesburg. TEH-A CEO Community South Africa aims to be similar to the Ambrosetti Club set up by TEH-A in Italy in 1999, which invites Italian CEOs and multinationals operating in Italy to be members. That Club has 300 members and organises 60 meetings a year. "At the moment, we are aiming to invite 30 CEOs to be part of the  Community in South Africa. The community aims to become the highest visible and exclusive platform where top-level interaction among members will be its strongest point of differentiation. It will be the most important and elite gathering of the leaders of South Africa and of those operating in the country, but in the long run it will invite prominent leaders from other African countries to be members," said Borzatta. Italy is among the top investors in Africa and its total trade with the continent is growing, with export value surpassing $ 6.3 billion in 2015. "We believe that this volume and value of trade could be increased if a proper platform is put in place to facilitate trade and investment," said Nico De Kock, TEH-A representative in South Africa. "Many European companies have not been successful when it comes to investing in Africa. By their nature, Italians are cautious about investing in markets they don't understand. They prefer to trade and distribute their products through local distributors. Platforms such as the summit and the TEH-A CEO Community will unlock investment into South Africa from Italian companies and South African investment into Europe." The South Africa-Italy Summit, organised by TEH-A, was inspired by the memorandum of understanding signed by the governments of South Africa and Italy at the "Regions of Africa/Europe Forum" in Taormina in 2012. The two governments committed themselves to promoting bilateral trade and investment between their countries. The inaugural summit was held in Cape Town in 2014, and the platform has grown since then with CEOs, chairmen, ambassadors, and cabinet ministers attending the summit. Over 40 leading speakers will attend this year's summit, which will cover important topics ranging from investment opportunities in railway transportation, energy infrastructure and pharmaceuticals; to the implications of "Brexit" on relations between South Africa and the European Union, and how Africa and Europe can work together to leverage project financing and public-private partnerships to boost long-term growth.