John Yeld
28 November 2001
Cape Town — THE world environmental development summit in Johannesburg next year is likely to contribute R1.3 billion to the country's gross domestic product and create 14 000 additional jobs, an independent study has found.
Taxpayers will be expected to pick up "much less" than half the anticipated cost of somewhere between R500 million and R550m for the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002.
This was confirmed during a media briefing yesterday by Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa and Moss Mashishi, chief executive of his department's non-profit company which was set up to run the event.
Mashishi said hosting the summit, which is expected to attract most of the world's 193 heads of state, would provide the same kind of economic spin-offs as the Olympic Games.
The 12-day summit next September is expected to attract 6 000 VIPs to the main proceedings, which are being conducted by the United Nations.
Some 8 000 journalists are likely to attend, as well as up to 1 000 of the world's most prominent leaders of business and industry.
The parallel non-government organisation summit is expected to attract up to 50 000 delegates.
Pop star Peter Gabriel is heading a World of Music and Dance Festival during the summit, and this is just one of scores of associated cultural and social events.
Moosa confirmed that hosting the summit would be a "very costly affair" and that it would probably require between R500m and R550m.
A "small portion" - definitely less than half - would be funded by taxpayers, he said.
The Johannesburg metropolitan council would pick up the tab for services such as traffic control, emergency services and any infrastructural work like roadworks.
There had already been "definite" commitments of R70m in funding from other governments.
"We expect at least R100m," Moosa said.
Private sector sponsorships were also being negotiated.
"I think we've got a very innovative way of raising funds, and a lot of thought has gone into this.
"At the end of the day, we want South Africans to have a warm feeling about the summit. Remember that we get a huge return - it's phenomenal."
Unlike its predecessor - the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro (the UN Conference on Environment and Development) - the Johannesburg summit would have a slightly bigger focus on development than on environmental conservation, Moosa said.
While protection of the environment was an important element of sustainable development, it was only one element, he said.
The other two, equally important, elements were social development and economic development.
South Africa's message to the summit was that poverty and inequality were the greatest threats to sustainable global development in the 21st century, but this country would not determine the summit's agenda, Moosa said.
This was being done by the UN at a string of preparatory conferences, of which the last - and arguably most important - was being held in Indonesia in June.
Pointing out that the summit's slogan was "People, planet and prosperity", Moosa said: "These three words capture what the conference is about", but added that it would be primarily about people.
He said he did not think there were any issues which had the potential to jeopardise the summit to the extent that the Middle East question had negatively affected the recent racism conference in Durban.
Climate change was a big issue, but nations had gone out of their way to negotiate a compromise agreement on the Kyoto Protocol of the Framework Convention on Climate Change at their recent meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco.
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