New Chair to boost Jozi's global power
- Wits University
Professor Wall has been appointed to the newly established Chair in Economic Development of the City of Johannesburg.
The Chair is located in the School of Economic and Business Sciences of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at Wits. The new Chair is the outcome of a shared vision by the University and the City of Johannesburg.
Wall, is a highly rated international researcher. He holds concurrent posts - at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands where he is Head of Urban Competitiveness and Resilience at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies.
He has global experience across cities in Europe, Asia and Africa. Besides foreign direct investment analysis, Wall also undertakes research on Happiness Economics, Smart Cities, Food Security and Urban-Rural Linkages.
According to Ravi Naidoo, Executive Director for Economic Development for the City of Joburg, “Successful metropolitan economies have become central to the prosperity of a country. This is especially true in South Africa, where the rapid growth of cities has transferred a significant proportion of the country’s social and economic development and transformational challenges to the metropolitan space.
“Johannesburg, at the heart of the Gauteng City Region, is South Africa’s largest metropolitan municipality in terms of both population and economic output. With its economic scale and infrastructure, it creates the most new jobs and attracts the most migrants. However, the city faces major social, economic and urban development challenges arising from our particular history. Furthermore, in a rapidly changing and interconnected world, Johannesburg shares many of the challenges facing other cities across the globe.
“Faster progress on economic growth and socio-economic transformation is essential for Johannesburg. The Chair of Economic Development at the University of the Witwatersrand will focus on applying leading thinking and research to helping this happen.”