Minister of EnergyTina Joemat-Pettersson (Pic By www.gov.za)

South African Energy Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson has confirmed to join the Ministries of Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique at the Southern Africa Energy & Infrastructure Summit (SAEIS) , taking place between the 4th and 6th of May.

Over 30 speakers from the SADC region will celebrate regional co-operation at the meeting and discuss the future of energy production, promoting energy and infrastructure projects that require both private and public-sector support in order to be realised in the region. The South African Minister will address investor questions on regional cooperation and South Africa’s supporting role within the SADC.

Additionally the ‘African Forum for Utility Regulators (AFUR)’ has provided its backing of the meeting with 10 heads of regional regulation bodies attending. Regulators will contribute publicly on the agenda as well as taking time at the meeting to privately debate a deeper, more integrated strategy to support private sector engagement and public sector needs.

DBSA, World Bank, OPIC, IFC, DBSA and AFC are all backing the project-focused working group, which is an extension of EnergyNet’s long standing partnership with Mozambique and these backbone investors.

“Having worked with the Mozambique government for 14 years now, we understand the landscape and the role the country can play regionally; therefore when a number of our private and public sector partners suggested we expand our offering to focus on energy and infrastructure projects regionally, it seemed the right move considering the rapidly changing role of SADC and SAPP to deliver greater integration.

Excitingly, the Project Advisory Unit recently established to deliver these massive projects in partnership with World Bank. These will be presented at the meeting and we expect them to throw up a number of opportunities for investors. For this reason it’s important that the private sector is able to participate in Maputo to further demonstrate its ability to play a pivotal role both in the planning and execution of the framework, but also to understand more clearly where the sector is going and who is shaping its direction,” said Veronica Bolton Smith, Regional Director, EnergyNet.