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Another mega-conference for SA

South Africa has beaten competition from Japan, Brazil, Israel and South Korea in its bid to host one of the world's largest medical conferences, the five-day, 10 000-delegate WorldPharma2014.

WorldPharma2014 - or the17th IUPHAR World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology - will take place in Cape Town in July 2014, merging two conferences: the World Congress of Pharmacology, which is held every four years, and the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Conference.

The right to host the event was won by a bid team comprising the SA Pharmacology Society, Thebe Conferences, the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) and the Cape Town Routes Unlimited convention promotion bureau.

"We are tapping into international markets and the economic spin-off for the city will be huge," CTICC managing director Dirk Elzinga said after the bid announcement was made at the 15th World Congress of Pharmacology in Beijing in July.

"This congress will have a large exhibition component and will present significant opportunities for local business and tourism in the Western Cape."

Professor Douglas Oliver, chairman of the South African Pharmacology Society, who presented the winning bid in Beijing, said the theme of the congress would be "health renaissance".

"WorldPharma2014 will be a major thrust in promoting and stimulating pharmacology on the African continent, in teaching, research, and to address the health care needs of the people through pharmacology," Oliver said.

Three other mega-conferences have been booked at CTICC: the 19th International Diabetes Federation Conference, which will bring 10 000 delegates to Cape Town in December, the 8 000-delegate Federation Internationale Gynecologie et Obstetrics in 2009, and the 6 000-delegate International Congress of Psychology in 2012.

The biggest conference staged at the CTICC to date was the 2 500-delegate International Convention of Principals in 2005.

SouthAfrica.info reporter

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