Delegates also heard that there was a strong interest and partnership potential between international government agencies and local companies, with the opportunity for significant future investment in the region.

The Provincial Government of the Western Cape presented its micro-economic development strategy, highlighting its focus areas for the local economy. These include the development of call centres, business process and outsourcing industries as well as the ICT industry in general.

Creating an ICT hub in Cape Town to service the Western Cape in particular and Africa in general is one of CITIs key goals, but the main challenge has been the lack of meaningful communication between the private and public sectors.

It is fantastic to see the provincial government taking a long-term view of the industry and moving towards addressing our skills shortage in an holistic and consultative manner, comments CITI executive director, Viola Manual.

The conference also hosted a number of international speakers who outlined opportunities for local IT companies.

Many local companies are unaware of the international opportunities available to them, and speakers from Wales, Canada and the USA outlined how SA IT companies can enter these markets, and strike up additional sales channels and build foreign revenue.

The USA is currently experiencing a boom in seed- and early-stage investment funding from both venture capitalists and angel investors.

The most sought after investments have been in the biotech, alternate fuels, Internet and software sectors encouraging news for local IT companies.

Of particular interest for the Western Cape companies were the outsourcing opportunities available to the call centre industry. Gregory Serandos, CEO of Andromeda Consulting, told delegates that most multinationals will hedge their outsourcing against political and economic instability, and, while our rand remains fairly strong, SA is seen as a politically stable environment and therefore attractive as a potential outsource destination.

The 'benefits of smart partnership' was a common theme for the conference, and the private sector was told it should be looking to partner with tertiary institutions and the public sector to commercialise their intellectual property.

Steve Davies of Technium Wales also outlined some opportunities for local SMEs.

Through government investment, Wales has created a network of development centres. These include a network of state-of-the-art facilities across Wales served by the latest IT and fibre-optic bandwidth capabilities.

Inside these 'Techniums', companies are supported by a team of business and technical support staff, and have access to specialist laboratory facilities and communal networking areas.

These are supported by local universities and are often based on campus.

Local companies were also told that Technium is running a competition across five countries, including SA, where a company can win a full year in one of these centres with all the associated business and technical assistance that the Welsh companies enjoy.