South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, is one of eight South African Ministers accompanying President Cyril Ramaphosa to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, which is taking place from 20 – 24 January 2025.

The 55th Annual Meeting of the WEF is a convening of both developing and developed countries which seeks to find solutions to global economic and financial issues. The world’s foremost leaders from government, business, and civil society, gather at this annual forum to promote the mobilisation of public private sector partnership, business investor engagements and media interfaces. The meeting is expected to be firmly future oriented both in terms of insights and solutions.

This year's WEF is convened under the theme 'Collaboration for the Intelligent Age' and the programme will be oriented around five distinct but highly interconnected thematic priorities: Rebuilding Trust, Reimagining Growth, Investing in People, Safeguarding the Planet, and Industries in the Intelligent Age.

All five thematic areas drive globally important conversations; Dr George will be closely following the developments in the ‘Safeguarding the Planet’ and ‘Reimagining Growth’ streams in line with the Department’s mandate and strategy.

“South Africa is the current President of the G20, which is an opportunity we will use to bring the development priorities of the African Continent and the Global South more decisively onto the agenda of the G20. One of these priorities is climate change. As such, one of my aims at the WEF is to drive further engagement on the agreements made at COP29 which we will continue to advocate for going into the G20,” said Dr George.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Thobile Zulu-Molobi
Cell: +27 82 513 7154 
E-mail: tmolobi@dffe.gov.za 

Peter Mbelengwa 
Cell: 082 611 8197 
E-mail: pmbelengwa@dffe.gov.za    

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