The Financial Mail Infrastructure Project Finance Conference, which took place on 8 and 9 July 2008 at the Sandton Sun, served as a highly valuable “feeder” event into next month's NEPAD/SADC Regional Infrastructure Projects Conference. The conference takes place a day before the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit, which starts on 9 August. According to Thembekile Simelane, marketing and project co-ordinator at the NEPAD Business Foundation, “the Conference provided a unique opportunity for stakeholders to find out what prospects are available for infrastructure projects in Africa and which funding institution best suits a project. With over 28 speakers from 18 different organisations, the event presented all solutions under one roof.” With the unprecedented boom of infrastructure projects in Africa, the theme of the conference was “New Conditions, Parameters and Methodologies as viewed by the Key Development Finance and Related Agencies”, with sub-Saharan Africa as the core focus.
