Minister Winde Welcomes Design Indaba Delegates

Thousands of visitors are set to attend the Design Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre this week.

Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, welcomed those attending the Design Indaba. The conference starts on 26 February and runs until 28 February. The Design Indaba Expo kicks off on 28 February and runs until 2 March.

In previous years 40 000 visitors attended the event.

Minister Winde said this year was particularly significant as it coincided with Cape Town hosting World Design Capital 2014.

The event draws creative sectors from across the world and gives local designers an audience to whom they can exhibit their innovative solutions and products. This year 495 exhibitors will showcase their products.

On Friday (28 February 2014) Minister Winde will attend the Design Indaba to launch a new Western Cape Government-sponsored competition calling on creative industry players to design a piece of street art for Lower Dorp Street. This forms part of the government’s 20 years of democracy celebrations and the WDC 2014 programme.

Minister Winde said the Design Indaba was an important economic catalyst.

“The economic impact of the Design Indaba is about R326 million. It is yet another example of the importance of events for our economy. In the previous financial year, major events hosted in the Western Cape generated R1.3 billion for the provincial economy. It is estimated that put together, these events attracted 196 600 tourists.”

“We are focused on building our creative sector and events such as this one help us in achieving this goal. Close to 80 000 people work in the design-related industries in the Western Cape and this sector contributes R14 billion to the national Gross Domestic Product. Between 2003 and 2013 the Western Cape attracted 19 Foreign Direct Investment projects in the creative industries. These projects were worth R2.3 billion and created 598 jobs,” said Minister Winde.