A warm welcome to all delegates to the African Renaissance Festival 2015. This year the theme 'Entrepreneurs of Africa' has been chosen for 17th edition of African Renaissance Festival. The theme will focus primarily on entrepreneurial development, with emphasis on creating an environment conducive for the start-up and development of small and medium business ventures as key drivers to economic growth and job creation.
Further to the development of entrepreneurs is the need to improve access to knowledge and skills through schools and tertiary education programmes in universities, technikons and further education and training colleges. Successful individuals are also called upon to share experiences and engage with the youth in order to motivate and mentor their career paths.
Consequently, the content of this year's conference programme will focus on the following aspects:
• South African Government and KwaZulu-Natal provincial government policy for entrepreneurial development of the youth, with an emphasis on creating a conducive environment for the start-up and development of small and medium business ventures as key drivers to economic growth and job creation, supported by public and private sector initiatives.
• Instilling a culture of entrepreneurship - Through the examples of successful entrepreneurs such as Ludwick Marishane - Headboy Industries, Ryan McFadyen - Have you Heard, and Sbu Shabalala - CEO, Adapt IT, lessons to achieve success may be learnt and applied.
• Integrating broad based entrepreneurship within the framework of government policy is essential, as is access to education, finance and support mechanisms.
• The role of technology is also vital in facilitating successful business ventures through the ease of conducting business transactions and open communication channels.
• Entrepreneurship development at tertiary institutions is a new focus. The requisite skills needed to develop and manage one's own business are a part of tertiary education that has become essential for graduates to acquire.
• International exchange programmes - This year's conference is also set to launch a renewed drive to access national and international bursary funding aimed at attracting our young talent in order to promote economic empowerment in South Africa. Without the necessary formal education, especially in scarce and critical skills areas, our country will not progress in line with global trends.
To this end, we welcome andappreciate the presence and participation of Ms Frances Chisholm - Consulate General of United States of America; Mr Rajagopalan Ragunathan -Consulate General of India; HE Mr Roeland van de Geer - EU
Ambassador to South Africa; and Mr Andreas Kunne - Minister, Economics & Global Issues at the German Embassy Pretoria. I wish all other speakers and delegates the best throughout the proceedings and thank you for sharing your knowledge and time on the African Renaissance Conference 2015 platform.
We need to pay tribute to the continued support of our funders and partners
especially KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier, eThekwini Municipality, East Coast Radio, uKhosi FM, Aspen Pharmacare, South African Airways, KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and Transnet Freight Rail. Furthermore, I would like to thank the African Renaissance team who has worked tirelessly in making sure that this 2015 Festival meets your expectations. We continue to remain committed to staging this event for many years to come as we celebrate and develop Africa's entrepreneurial spirit.


stephanie@superfecta.info
www.superfecta.co.za