The two-day meeting of the High-level Forum on South-South Cooperation for Sustainable Development (SS-SCSD) ended in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday with the launching of the Africa representative office of the International Organisation for South-South Cooperation (IOSSC).

In a closing remarks at a gala dinner held in Johannesburg, Ambassador Alexandru Cujba, Secretary General of the SS-SCSD, and Director General of the IOSSC, commended SS-SCSD for launching the IOSSC Africa representative office.

“The launching of the IOSSC in South Africa will ensure that the African continent gets its share of development that is being enjoyed by countries of the South,” Cujba said.

“During these two days of discussions we have paved a way that will help us move into the future where public private partnerships become the tool for sustainable development,” Cujba added.

The forum attracted more than 100 participants from both the public and private sector.

“From the deliberations we have had different initiatives that countries have as well as what business is offering,” John Ashe, President of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly and Chairman of the SS-SCSD said in his keynote closing remarks.

“Our task now is to bring these two together and create public private partnerships that will produce positive results,” said Ashe.

His sentiments were echoed by Ndaba Ntsele from the Presidency Business Council, South Africa.

Ntsele said, “We are very happy and proud to witness the opening of the IOSSC office in South Africa.”

“We are delighted with passion for this office that will drive infrastructure development for the entire African continent,” added Ntsele.

Ntsele however expressed concerns over Africa’s failure to create enough entrepreneurs. He said, “We must think of developing sustainable medium size companies to ensure that all citizens participate in bringing about development.”

Another voice from Africa came from Lesotho’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Cooperatives and Marketing, Sekhulumi Ntsoaole.

“The South-South Cooperation for sustainable development is a good initiative. With South-South cooperation we will find the best way of developing our cities and rural areas to achieve a high level of sustainable development,” said Ntsoaole.

“This is a major tool to help developing countries to reach their full development potential,” he added.

Ntsoaole called for more inter-trade within the continent to speed up infrastructure development.

“In the next ten years we will see Africa becoming an economic giant like China,” Ntsoaole said.

Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, Executive President of the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development said the two-day meeting gave a platform for forum members to exchange views on bringing about development.

Lorenzo said, “We are extremely satisfied with the outcomes of the deliberations. We need to ensure that the post 2015 agenda becomes a new opportunity to learn from each other.”

“The meeting has helped us to discover the potential of building stronger communication and development through public private partnerships,” said Lorenzo.

The meeting was organized and supported by the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development, IOSSC, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), United Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and other UN agencies.