Programme Director;
Your Excellency, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Dr. Philipp Rosler;
Minister of Home Affairs, Ms Naledi Pandor;
Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Derek Hanekom;
Minister of Energy, Ms Dipuo Peters;
Honourable Members of the German Bundestag;
Excellency, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of South Africa, Dr. Horst Freitag;
Excellency, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Federal Republic of Germany, Reverend Dr Makhenkesi Stofile;
Excellency, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to South Africa, Ambassador Roland van de Geer;
President of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Prof. Dr. Driftmann;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting me to the celebration of 60 years of the existence of the Southern African/German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in this region of our continent.
I feel privileged to deliver this address and to welcome the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and Minister of Economics and technology, Dr. Philipp Rosler, as well as his delegation.
I hope that your brief stay has been pleasant, possibly persuading you to stay on for a further 60 years.
At a bilateral level our countries have enjoyed a special co-operation across various facets of life, including labour, social affairs, economy, culture, science and renewable energies.
This is aptly reflected in our co-operation portfolio, demonstrating strong German commercial sector involvement in South Africa spanning decades, particularly in the automotive and engineering sectors.
Today there are approximately 700 German-owned companies or subsidiaries of German companies in South Africa, and Germany is ranked the 4th largest export destination for South Africa in the world. Overall, South Africa's exports to Germany have been showing an upward swing over the five year period ending in 2011.
We will continue expanding bilateral ties in areas such as energy, skills, resource development and government to government level co-operation.
Programme Director,
As a nation that is still battling past impediments to socio-economic reconstruction and development we are clearly aware that the shape of the future of our country can only be forged by what we do today. This has been our approach since the democratic dispensation in 1994.
We have consistently worked to reduce government debt during growth periods, manage inflation through predictable and independent monetary policy, and encourage competition as well as provide much needed public services.
We have over the years come up with a raft of measures which we believe best respond to our unique challenges of reconstruction and development, understanding that reconstruction, development and economic growth are not only underwriters of political stability but conduce to the realisation of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, just and prosperous society.
Programme director,
The South African government adopted the New Growth Path (NGP) as the framework to drive our jobs vision for the country, rebuild and strengthen the economy after the recession and lay the platform for strong, sustained and inclusive economic growth.
The new growth path seeks to place the economy on a production-led trajectory with growth targeted through ten ‘jobs drivers'. The first jobs driver is infrastructure development.
However we recognised that the pace of infrastructure development was lagging behind what the nation needs. Therefore we have established the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission - the PICC - bringing together representatives of the three spheres of government.
The PICC's mandate is therefore to develop a twenty-year infrastructure pipeline of projects to ensure that we can plan ahead and move away from the stop-start syndrome around the building of infrastructure.
This will allow us to ensure better financial mobilisation, provide greater certainty to the construction industry, give educational institutions a framework around which to plan their skills development strategies, and to provide a roadmap for investors and communities.
The infrastructure plan needs to include a focus on maintenance, so that we do not only build new assets but also keep the state of the existing infrastructure base in good working order.
The PICC developed an Infrastructure Plan with 17 Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs), covering more than 150 specific infrastructure interventions.
These cover all the key platforms: rail, road and port; dams, irrigation systems and sanitation; new energy generation plants, transmission lines and distribution of electricity to households; communication and broadband infrastructure; social infrastructure in the form of hospitals, schools and universities as well as regional infrastructure.
The New Growth Path will create substantially new business opportunities for global companies, including those belonging to the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The South African government has focused on the strengthening of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as one of the engines for reconstruction, development and growth. The government's new Growth Path envisages a catalytic role for the SOS, which means they must continue to be dynamic, adaptable, commercially viable and financially sustainable. Indeed, their ability to raise capital in global markets is central to their strategic public role, and this depends on their adherence to well-established financial and accounting norms.
In addition, South Africa has taken bold and decisive action to create energy security through diversifying its energy sources, accelerating access to energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building a competitive 21st century clean energy economy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Germany is one of South Africa's most important trading partners within the European Union and is ranked the 4th largest export destination for South Africa in the world.
Given our strong collaboration, even before the formalisation of this chamber 60 years ago, the government initiatives I have highlighted this evening present viable and mutually beneficial opportunities for our countries.
There are various opportunities for expanding and intensifying bilateral economic ties in renewable energy. Furthermore, renewable sources of energy are gaining importance as can be seen from the South African government's Solar Water Heating (SWH) programme.
We have already commenced collaboration on the establishment of a Renewable Energy Incubator, as an SMME development initiative.
The project will establish a solar water heating demonstration centre which will provide training to entrepreneurs. This manufacturing facility will prepare enterprises for manufacturing, assembling and installing solar water heating equipment.
In this regard, we appreciate Germany's continued support for the South African renewable energy sector and we look forward to long term co-operation within the South African Renewable Initiatives programme
Over and above these initiatives is the importance of co-operation in streamlining the skills delivery system through piloting dedicated Industry-Skills Hubs as outlined in our Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 (IPAP2).
The most important example of this is the Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP) which has strong prospects for the German Automotive industry in South Africa.
This new Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP) is targeted at:
- Maintaining support to assist the industry in becoming more sustainable over time
- Ameliorating existing industry distortions
- Establishing a long term policy framework up to 2020.
This collaboration presents exciting opportunities in Education, Training and Advanced Research, circumventing the major skills shortage in the industry.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In conclusion, let me once again thank you for these many years of meaningful relationship between our two nations.
I wish to emphasise that we are ready and willing to continue to build on this profitable engagement which, as we have indicated earlier, has the potential to help us address our accumulated historical disabilities that have a negative effect on our present effort to realise our reconstruction and development objectives.
I am confident that we can continue to count on your co-operation in the next 60 odd years to make this dream come true, which, in effect, denotes reaching the vision of a better-managed, humane and prosperous world.
I thank you
