The inaugural Gauteng Funding Fair (GFF), to be held in Johannesburg in March, will stimulate entrepreneurship, create jobs and further enhance the province’s economy, Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe said at the official launch of the fair in Sandton last week.

The GFF is a joint initiative involving the Gauteng provincial government and profes-sional services firm Deloitte, and will take place on March 25 and 26 at Emperors Palace.

Nkomfe stated that the funding fair aimed to fulfil the national imperative of an inclusive economy and address socioeconomic imbal-ances, both of which were key pillars in the National Development Plan.

He added that these pillars formed part of the Gauteng pro-vincial government’s seven strategic priorities.

“With a gross domestic product (GDP) valued at R811-billion, Gauteng generates 34% of South Africa’s GDP and 10% of the total GDP of the African continent. It is, therefore, appropriate that the province – the economic hub and nerve centre of commercial activity, not just for the country or the Southern African region but the entire continent – should host this funding fair,” Nkomfe stated.

The initiative would facilitate “a vigorous dialogue” between entrepreneurs, project promoters and various types of funders, and features three segments – corporate, infrastructure and small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs).

The corporate leg of the fair would take place in March and assess the entrepreneurial expertise of Gauteng’s best business minds. Entrepreneurs with sound business ideas would have until February 7 to submit their projects, with a starting value of R20-million, for the corporate leg of the event.

The most bankable ideas would be selected by a team of Deloitte and provincial govern-ment facilitators. Entrepreneurs would then have 15 minutes to present their projects to a panel of funders.

The infrastructure leg of the fair would assist aspiring industrialists to take advantage of programmes such as the Strategic Infra-structure Projects (Sips), which include the upgrade of the Durban–Free State–Gauteng Freight Logistics and Industrial Corridor.

Nkomfe stated that the challenge in infrastructure spending was often not a lack of funding or a lack of projects but a mismatch between project structure and funding require-ments. The GFF aimed to bridge that gap.

In the SMME segment, delegates would learn about the types of businesses that could thrive in Gauteng, which was connected to the Southern African region. Delegates would also be shown how to write and prepare bankable business ideas that had a higher probability of attracting funding.

The infrastructure and SMME fairs would follow during the course of 2014.

“As government, our role is to create an enabling environment for funders and entre- preneurs to have a meeting of minds and explore possibilities. The funding fair offers this platform over two interactive days of exhi-bitions, workshops and business coaching,” Nkomfe said.

He added that the funding fair would help conclude the current political term of government on a positive note and lay a strong foundation for the next five years to accelerate job creation.

Nkomfe pointed out that the Gauteng government’s first strategic objective was to create decent work in an inclusive and growing economy. The desired outcome of that strategic priority was to stimulate redistributive economic development to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods, and reduce income inequality.

He noted that government could not achieve this goal on its own and the solutions proposed by delegates at the GFF would be of value in achieveing government’s strategic priorities.