OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 9.55am
GOVERNMENT and business leaders from throughout the Commonwealth are in Johannesburg on Tuesday for the start of the three-day Commonwealth Business Forum.
Ten government leaders are due to attend. The forum, hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki, comes ahead of a full Heads of Government summit in Durban on Friday.
The forum brings together government and business leaders to discuss global business trends, review the interaction between business practices and government policies under the theme “Making Globalisation Work”. More than 650 business executives from around the Commonwealth’s 54 member states will attend, including private sector delegates from Pakistan, suspended last month following a military coup.
Presidents Festus Mogae of Botswana and Joachim Chissano of Mozambique will be among the political leaders, who include Prime Ministers Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia, Goh Chok Tong of Singapore, Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas, Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius, Edward French-Adami of Malta, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of Samoa and Basdeo Panday of Trinidad and Tobago.
The forum, which closes on Thursday, will be inaugurated by Mbeki, Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Britain’s Lord Cairns the Chairman of the Commonwealth Business Council. South African business magnate Cyril Ramaphosa, Vice-Chairman of the Commonwealth Business Council, will chair the event.
The private sector will have the opportunity of making high level recommendations to Commonwealth leaders on the debate within the organisation on making globalisation work.
The theme for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which opens in the east coast city of Durban on Friday, is “People-Centred Development: the Challenge of Globalisation”. — AFP