Under the auspices of the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme South Africa, the NCPC, UNIDO and SECO will partner with the GIZ Sustainable Industrial Areas Programme to host an international gathering of stakeholders. The conference will focus on challenges and solutions for developing Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) and Sustainable Industrial Areas (SIA).

The conference will experts from all over the world together to share knowledge and discuss recent trends, best practices and future development in the EIP/SIA space. The event will serve as an international platform for exchanging knowledge about sustainable industrial development of industrial areas worldwide by addressing organizational performance of industrial areas, while balancing economic, social and environmental concerns.

The conference will address the four pillars of the International EIP Framework that was jointly developed by UNIDO, GIZ and the World Bank: governance, environment, economic, social and address topics such as:

• Energy and water
• Materials/ resources (RECP, IS, LCA/LCM, etc.)
• Decarbonisation and emissions reduction in industry
• Green industrial policy
• EIP/ SIA operations
• Green finance
• Skills development
• Green hydrogen

The NCPC-SA is proud to host the 11^th SIA Conference, an initiative of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with support from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Bank Group (WBG).

GIZ has been hosting annual conferences on sustainable Industrial Areas (SIA) since 2009. This year, GIZ and UNIDO will together with the NCPC-SA, host the international conference for SIA and EIPs (which address the same objectives even though they are termed differently) in South Africa. These conferences have traditionally brought experts from all over the world together to discuss recent trends, best practices and future development in the SIA/ EIP space. The conferences serve as an international platform for exchanging knowledge about sustainable industrial development of industrial areas worldwide by addressing organisational performance of industrial areas, while balancing economic, social and environmental concerns.