Excellencies Heads of State,
President of MEDEF and Captains of Industry,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for the opportunity to meet with the business community on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
We greatly appreciate the interest of business leaders of your calibre in the work that the respective governments do.
The G20 is an important forum for galvanising world leadership on pressing economic issues. That is why South Africa values its participation in the G20.
A fully-inclusive forum, such as the United Nations, is necessary for decision-making on key global issues.
However, experience has shown that the G20 can play an important facilitating role as a catalyst, especially where negotiations in other forums are not making progress.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The work of the B20, as the business segment of the G20 forum, makes a valuable contribution to the discussions of the summit.
We appreciate the inputs as solutions will not come from government alone. Business also needs to think into the future.
When I addressed the B20 in Seoul, it still looked as if the recovery of the world economy was continuing. That has not happened.
Instead, we have all felt the shock waves of the financial crises now centred in Europe.
The world faces the twin challenges of slowing growth and rising downside risks. Our task as leaders is to reduce the uncertainty and risks.
We have to emerge from the G20 Summit with a clear direction and firm commitments, both on short-term recovery and growth issues and on long-term developmental issues.
As South Africa we welcome the Euro zone roadmap to stability and growth. We support their commitments to enhance fiscal policies, provide sufficient liquidity to distressed banks and to set out the institutional and policy reforms that are necessary to support growth.
We believe that this current crisis should lead to a realisation that change is inevitable. Balanced growth is just as important as strong and sustainable growth.
We cannot realistically attain higher and more equitable growth, without addressing the root causes of imbalances in the global economy.
To this end, we need stronger commitments from large deficit and surplus countries to do a number of things.
They must strengthen the fiscal policy environment. They must maintain appropriate monetary policies. They should refrain from protectionism. And lastly, they should support investment and enabling interventions in developing and low income countries.
This will contribute enormously to promoting development, poverty reduction and decent work.
Populations in emerging economies and least developed countries will continue to be subjected to harmful and excessive economic volatility and risks until agreement on these often divisive issues is reached within the G20.
In many respects, the Least Developed Countries are innocent bystanders, who have been caught up in the economic turmoil.
We feel strongly about the need to open up the world markets in order to stimulate the recovery of the global economy.
The participation of low-income countries in global trade is crucial for their growth and poverty reduction endeavours. Therefore, the conclusion of the Doha Round is crucial and urgent, and it has to be a truly developmental round.
We strongly believe in the ability of the G20 to forge consensus, show leadership and build confidence on most of these issues.
The London Summit in April 2009 demonstrated the ability of G20 Leaders to reach consensus on coordinated global fiscal and monetary policy to support the recovery from the global economic recession that followed in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
We have confidence that tangible progress will be made here in Cannes as well.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me take this opportunity as well, to urge you as international business, to look towards Africa and invest in employment-creating growth.
Many African countries are already preparing their economies for growth.
For example, in South Africa, we are putting in place our plans for growth through an ambitious New Growth Path framework.
We have identified new jobs drivers in a few areas other than our traditionally strong manufacturing and service sectors.
We are spending more than 800 billion rand in infrastructure over the next three years or so, prioritising roads, bridges, dams, electricity and water provision nationwide.
We are also encouraging more investment in agriculture, mining, tourism and the green economy.
We also look to the integration of the economies of Africa as providing opportunities.
We recently signed an agreement with 26 other African countries to create a free trade area that will cover more than half of Africa.
By June 2014, nearly 60% of the economy of Africa will be a single free trade area, covering the Southern African community, the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
The implementation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area requires two main additional ingredients - good infrastructure as well as integrated systems to allow the efficient flow of goods, people and investment.
We are working on both of these.
I trust that you are aware of the North-South Corridor project, a NEPAD project to increase the efficiency of the major North-South transport of the Southern African region.
I volunteered to act as political champion for this project when we discussed it in the African Union.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before I conclude, let me remind you of the 17th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that will take place in Durban, South Africa at the end of this month.
We hope to make significant progress in Durban and are focusing on a few key priorities.
Firstly, we must ensure the implementation of the decisions of the 16th conference of the parties in Cancun.
Secondly, we need a firm agreement going forward on the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
Thirdly, we need a more coherent approach to the challenge of adaptation and mitigation, especially for small island developing states and other vulnerable countries.
Finally, we need a clear commitment to the establishment and the funding of the Green Climate Fund.
We are working towards achieving all these important outcomes.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This is an important G20 session given the prevailing economic climate.
Getting on a path towards full recovery and strong, sustainable and balanced growth entails making difficult adjustments and compromises.
We will urge our colleagues that job creation and social inclusion should remain part of our agenda and focus as we discuss solutions.
Hard decisions need to be taken on structural reforms to increase potential growth, and in doing so we should not only think about the impact of these policies on our own countries.
We should consider their impact on the world economy at large.
Thank you once again for your report and inputs.
We look forward to a successful G20 Summit.
I thank you.
