Harare — THE Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe has been invited to the 2010 Construction Summit in South Africa to discuss topical issues facing Africa and the international construction industry.

The Construction Industry Development Board and the Chartered Institute of Builders, representative bodies of construction contractors and professionals in South Africa, extended the invitation to CIFoZ.

CIFoZ president Mr Daniel Garwe confirmed the invitation to summit that would run between May 26 and 27. Mr Garwe said that Master Builders, another South Africa representative body for contractors, had also invited CIFoZ to a meeting to explore ways in which local and South African contractors could collaborate.

"We have been invited to a construction summit that will be held in South Africa. CIDB and CIOB extended the invitation to CIFoZ. In addition, we were also invited by Master Builders to a meeting to explore various ways of co-operation with the South Africans," said Mr Garwe.

The 2010 Construction Summit, running under the theme "The Future of Africa's Infrastructure", will be held at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg.

The summit will discuss South Africa's R846 billion infrastructure budget, opportunities for regional and international partnerships, models to save time and money, perspectives on challenges and opportunities, sustainable infrastructure solutions and ways to reduce climate change.

Specific objectives of the meeting include revival of the commitment to collaboration among contractor development organisations from countries that are signatories to the memorandum of understanding, and review progress in promoting contractor development in "our respective countries -- the effectiveness of existing initiatives, success and lessons learnt".

The summit will also discuss the need for a new emphasis on sustainable, focused and targeted contractor development and best practice development interventions to support contractors' initiatives. High profile speakers at the summit include South African Minister of National Planning Trevor Manuel, Minister of Public Works Geoffrey Doidge and CIDB chairperson Professor Raymond Nkado, CIDB chief executive Mr Ronnie Khoza and CIOB president Shirong Mr Li, among others.

Mr Garwe said the meeting would discuss various ways in which local contractors could enhance their operations through co-operation with South Africa contractors.

This also comes amid concern among local contractors that the construction industry boom in South Africa did not benefit most local firms. This is despite the fact that South African contractors always got most big construction jobs in the country. As such, South African contractors may come in handy where resource and sophisticated equipment is required.

The local construction industry has faced huge challenges over the last decade due to economic instability and requires a huge capital outlay to retool.

Subdued economic activity has also resulted in a slow recovery of the sector as only a handful of big construction projects are going on around the country.

Prospects, however, remain bright for the construction industry, but this depends on economic recovery, as the country would have to complete many infrastructure projects suspended at the height of economic instability.