Italians in town to swop expertise
By Tabisa Mntengwana
17 November 2009
IN an attempt to improve service delivery in the local economic development sectors in Buffalo City, an Italian delegation is in town to share its expertise with the municipality.
The workshop, being held at the East London City Hall, began on 16 November and ends on 18 November.
Its objective is to spread knowledge between programme partners and stakeholders at national, provincial and local level regarding local economic development policies and practices.
The visitors, from the city of Tuscany, and their local counterparts will discuss various topics during the three-day workshop, including community participation and empowerment, local economic development planning, local business development, agro-food sector development, trade, and territorial marketing and tourism promotion.
Speaking at the workshop, Buffalo City Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku said: “This sort of gathering serves an encouraging trend that spells hope for the destitute sectors of our communities who wait eagerly to see what impact this programme will have on their lives.”
Another workshop objective is to focus on poverty reduction initiatives, ranging from the provision of basic services to the promotion of local economic development.
The workshop theme is “Addressing poverty through local economic development: exchange of experience between South Africa and Italy”.
Partners in this initiative include the Eastern Cape provincial government, the Gauteng provincial government, and various municipalities, including Buffalo City, Ekurhuleni, OR Tambo and Ngquza Hill, together with relevant stakeholders, civil society organisations, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the regional government of Tuscany.
Delivering his opening remarks, the Eastern Cape MEC for local government and traditional affairs, Sicelo Gqobana, said: “It is through working together that we can bridge the gap between first and second economies and achieve the project of socio-economic transformation.”
Giving a background on local economic development perspectives, Gqobana said the workshop needed to find ways to enhance the understanding of how key elements of local economic development were supposed to work together.
The first secretary for the Italian embassy, Dario Armini, said that the three days of information and experience sharing would prove the commitment to the success of the project from all stakeholders.
Faku added that the purpose of the workshop was also to continue the network and information sharing “with the principal objective of identifying factors and dynamics influencing local economic development, the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation agencies, as well as the development policy imperatives of the South African stakeholders”.
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