Early estimates indicate that the Gauteng province gained more than R1 billion in revenue as a result of hosting the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
This is according to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi who briefed the media on Tuesday.
Thousands of delegates and guests – including heads of state and government – poured into the province for the summit which was held over the weekend.
“That weekend alone, Gauteng scored an investment amount of between R1 billion and R3 billion. We are still consolidating these figures from the hotels, travel agencies and institutions that shared their statistics with their institutions.
“Almost all our hotels were booked, the airlines to our province were fully booked and our malls were busy with visitors including our tourist destinations in Soweto, Magalies and Sandton in particular where the majority of our visitors enjoyed themselves,” Lesufi said.
The Premier added that the exposure the province experienced as a result of the leaders’ summit was “priceless” for attracting future investments.
“The summit did not just bring a large influx of delegates…it also created a huge demand of future investments. We entered in long debates and discussions between local businesses as well as future investors.
“In the deliberation halls, we were introduced investors that have identified our province of Gauteng as a preferred destination for future investment.
“The positive exposure is priceless. Especially considering the data shows that G20 countries account for more than 78% of the global economy and 58% of global visitors,” Lesufi added.
He assured that no additional funds were utilised from the provincial government’s budget to host the summit.
“We are consolidating figures because we need to add local government. But what we said…no additional money will be put for G20 because G20 is about the things that we do every day.
“We must fix potholes. So we can’t say we need more money to fix potholes. We didn’t put additional money as a provincial government,” Lesufi said.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit, the planning it entailed and the accelerated service delivery that it took to host, will serve as a launch pad for the future.
“We want to reaffirm this…we want to commit that we are going to go beyond G20.
“Going forward, we want to maintain the momentum. We want to take the experience of coordinating events together with national and local government, as a way forward to resolve the hard-pressed challenges that our province has been facing,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
