Media Release July 24
2002
To: New Editor/ PR Wire
From: Nthatisi
Modingoane
COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
City Of
Johannesburg
Tel: (011)
407-7354
__________________________________________________________
Benefits for hosting the World Summit on Sustainable
Development
Ten years ago it was Rio. On 26 August 2002
all eyes of the world will be
focused on the City of
Johannesburg.
The World Summit on Sustainable
Development holds a promise of a better
future for Planet
Earth. It will address the social, economical
and
environmental concerns facing the world.
These are
issues that the city of Johannesburg is constantly engaging
with
and the Summit will
provide us with many opportunities to
make
contributions to the ongoing critical debates and
learn valuable lessons
from these discussions. We
will also use the momentum of the Summit to
intensify our local
government programmes well beyond the Summit. This will
include the legacy of
the infrastructure development.
The summit is
expected to contribute about R1, 3 billion to the national
economy.
The city stands to gain about R1 billion. Further more,
it is
expected that about 14 000 jobs will be created and
that tourism will be
boosted considerably.
It is
however, not only the anticipated short- term economic gains
that
will make the Summit an important
development for this City. The name
Johannesburg will remain in
the minds of the people for many decades as a
place where
humanity gathered and emerged with meaningful solutions
to
preserve our earth for future generations.
We are confident
that delegates will find the city with its diverse peoples
and culture, warm,
friendly and welcoming.
It is important that we say to all
delegates:
You will experience the City's rich political
and cultural heritage while
you are here. Johannesburg is a
living museum of South Africa's struggle
for democracy. Tours of the
struggle route can be organized. An experience
of township life, artistic
Joburg, attending one of the shows of the City's
largest annual
international festival ? Arts Alive Festival, will be in
full
swing, or just some quiet time at the Zoo or Gold Reef City is part of
what
Johannesburg has to offer.
Johannesburg has a peculiarity of being a
city that is not built on a river
bank but boasts of
being one of the most treed cities in the world (an
urban
forest). The Summit has also been a catalyst to the upgrading of
our
nature reserves like Melville Koppies
and the Klipriviersberg Nature
reserve.
Johannesburg
is also a shopper's paradise, appealing to visitors from
other
continents because of its cheap prices.
It also attracts visitors from
region and beyond due to the
diversity and availability of goods. We have
vast shopping
malls as well as smaller, more intimate shopping zones. We
are at your
service!
On Operations and Logistics
The City of
Johannesburg will spend well over R65-million on hosting the
70
000 visitors expected to
attend the World Summit on
Sustainable
Development. This will boost the economy of the City
tremendously.
Much of the
world's media will focus on the summit during
the
critical fortnight,
which will help raise the city's
international
profile. This
will have long-term benefits for investment
and
tourism. There are
plenty of precedents, such as the Olympic
Games
and the World
Cup, to confirm the power of a
single, large
international event to put
a city on the world map.
The arrival of 70 000
visitors, all armed with foreign exchange,
will
have huge benefits for retail in
the city - everything from taxis to
restaurants, curio shops, museums, internet cafes and
entertainment
venues.
The summit has provided a
catalyst for much-needed upgrades to city
infrastructure. Most of these upgrade projects were already in
the
pipeline - but it
required the urgency of the summit deadline
to
ensure that so many had to be executed so
swiftly.
New businesses have
been established to organise the summit,
for
example the Johannesburg World
Summit Company, creating employment.
The
infrastructure upgrades have created new opportunities to
employ
the city's poor:
building roads, digging trenches for drains
and
clearing away waste to make way for green
areas.
The summit has helped focus the local
public on issues of sustainable
development. There is now a far more widespread understanding
that
sustainability has relevance to our daily
lives.
The next presentation will outline how the City is
going to spend the R65
million. The changes that
will be most obvious to residents will
be
improvements to major roads, repairs to
traffic lights, cleaning up of
parks and open spaces,
renovations to certain derelict buildings, and
improvements to
the bus services, city lighting and refuse removal.
We wish to extend
our warm welcome to all delegates and heads of state that
will be attending
the summit. To these leaders we say, may your
deliberations be fruitful and
your stay, be memorable.
For more information, please
contact:
Kgotso Chikane - Spokesperson for the Executive
Mayor
Tel: (011) 407-7558
Fax: (011)
339-5704
Cell: 082 464 9446
Email:
kgotsoc@joburg.co.za
Nthatisi Modingoane
Media Liaison
Officer
CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Tel: (011) 407 7354
Fax: 403 3494
Cell:
082 467 9228
E-mail: nthatisem@joburg.org.za
For more information
about this wonderful City of ours, please visit our
website :
www.joburg.org.za