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South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will later today, Sunday 15 January depart for Davos, Switzerland where he will lead, on behalf of President Jacob Zuma, a high-level government, business and labour delegation to the 2017 World Economic Forum Annual meeting scheduled from 17-20 January 2017.

Organised under the theme “Responsive and Responsible Leadership”, this year’s World Economic Forum taking place against the background of a challenging global environment is expected to attract over 2700 world leaders in the public and private sectors to discuss the global economy.

The programme for the 2017 World Economic Forum annual event has been organised around five areas which have been identified as in need of urgent responsive and responsible leadership namely: Preparing for the fourth industrial revolution; Strengthening systems for global collaboration; Revitalising the global economy; Reforming market capitalism and addressing identity through positive narratives.

The South African Team under the leadership of Deputy President Ramaphosa will communicate to the global community the positive message that ‘’Working together our future is in our hands’’. In this context the South African team will utilise the opportunity presented by the World Economic Forum to highlight the work that the government working together with business and labour is doing to:

• Implement economic transformation and the reform agenda
• Make progress towards achieving inclusive growth and employment
• Restoring investor confidence
• Achievement of supportive business confidence
• And refine government spending efficiency

During the proceedings of the World Economic Forum, Deputy President Ramaphosa is expected to participate in five sessions including: Building a new water economy; Operationalising the sustainable Development Goals-unlocking the power of public-private co-operation; Africa’s Road to Prosperity; Gathering of World Economic Leaders on Responsive and Responsible leadership in a multi-polar world; African Regional Strategy Group; High-level panel on water; Global Goals-the road to 2030.

The Deputy President will also participate in Business Interaction Group on South Africa aimed at deepening the process of interaction between South African policy-makers and leading multinational businesses from the perspective of advancing national growth and well-being.

Panelists for this session will include Ministers Rob Davies, Pravin Gordhan, Ebrahim Patel and Jeff Radebe.

Deputy President Ramaphosa’s government delegation includes the Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan; Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr Jeff Radebe; Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies; Minister of Economic Development, Mr Ebrahim Patel; Minister of Water and Sanitation, Ms Nomvula Mokonyane and KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mr Sihle Zikalala.

South Africa is poised to host in May this year the WEF Africa meeting in Durban.

Issued by the Presidency