SA contributions hailed at WCF

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Davos - South Africa’s participation at the World Communication Forum - currently underway in Davos, Switzerland - has been hailed as a good move to market the country, especially in Europe.

Following a moving presentation by Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on the importance of development communication, the President of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) Maxim Behar was unable to reserve his comments.

“ … through the contributions and participation of the South African delegates at the WCF, a strong message has been sent out to the world [about] how intelligent and creative [the] people of South Africa are.

“Really, this is the country that deserves to be much more known, especially in Europe. The more you participate at the WCF, the better for the country, the better for the business.

He said that as ICCO President and WCF Committee co-Chair he has felt the presence of South Africa during this year’s forum.

“ … now we know that South Africans are very active, very creative and good people to work with in order to bring about development in the world,” he said.

The sentiment was shared by the forum’s Chairman, Yogesh Joshi. “I was also impressed by South Africa’s delegation participation at this Forum,” he said.

Minister Muthambi said: “At home we use the power of communication to serve our communities by informing, educating and providing open access to information.  Ours is a developmental agenda and as such our communication encourages people to participate in developing our country and growing our economy.

“We are guided by the National Development Plan which envisages an active citizenry that participates in the socio-economic life of the country and are more conscious of the things they have in common than their differences.”

The global communication elite have been gathered in Davos since Tuesday for the 7th edition of WCF.

Each year, the WCF-Davos summons industry’s main influencers and leaders in public relations, marketing, media, political and business communications and corporate finances, as well as a large number of media representatives and international partner associations and organisations. - SAnews.gov.za