6th Pan-African Competitiveness Forum Annual Conference 2014

The Theme for the Conference is:
“Enhancing Africa’s socio economic development through cluster based competitiveness as a catalyst for transformation, innovation, entrepreneurship, accelerated regional integration and intra-Africa trade.”

The Pan-African Competitiveness Forum (PACF) was established in April 2008 in Addis Ababa with the support of the African Union (AU) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in collaboration with The Competitiveness Institute (TCI).

The establishment of the PACF was in response to the concern to see Africa develop in a sustainable manner and achieve the Millennium Development Goals within the foreseeable future, and get integrated into the global economy. African countries should transform their economies and move from merely being producers of raw materials to exporters of value added products and services. The PACF’s vision of Africa’s integration and effective competition on the global stage is founded on innovation and cluster-based initiatives bringing government, academia and enterprises into a triple helix partnership.

The Secretariat of PACF is currently based in Dar Es Salaam with Prof. Burton Mwamila, Vice Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology as the Chairman of the Executive Board, and Eng. Peter Chisawillo, the President of the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture, as the Secretary-cum-Treasurer. Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administration at Makerere University, is the Chairman of the Council of PACF. There are sub-regional representations and national representations on the Executive Board and Council.  Promoting innovation and profitable cluster activities is however a challenge which needs to be addressed strategically. An important part of the strategy is to organize annual continental conferences to bring together all the actors in the PACF’s mission to deliberate on issues concerning cluster initiatives, innovation, competitiveness and Africa’s economic development in general. DOWNLOAD CALL FOR ABSTRACTS THE GOAL AND OBJECTIVES The Sixth Continental Conference is dedicated to enhancing Africa’s social economic development through innovation and cluster based competitiveness as a catalyst for transformation, innovation, entrepreneurship and accelerating regional integration and intra-Africa trade. The content of the three-day Conference will be largely knowledge exchange, competence building and experience sharing. The specific objectives include: To appraise progress made since the establishment of PACF in April 2008. To share knowledge and experiences across the continent on mainstreaming innovation and cluster-based thinking into the development agenda and strategies of the Triple Helix constituents to facilitate innovation, skills development and knowledge management for socio-economic transformation of Africa. To share experiences across the continent how mainstreaming of cluster initiatives into Government, Academia and Private Sector policies and programmes facilitates enhance competitiveness, promotes regional integration and intra-Africa trade. One day will be dedicated to providing the participants firsthand experience with clusters in Tanzania and another day will be for the Annual General Meeting of PACF.>>>