His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Mozambique Armando Emilio Guebuza;
Honourable Ministers;
Distinguished business delegations,
Ladies and gentlemen;
It is a pleasure to meet with distinguished leaders from the South African and Mozambican business sectors.
All of you gathered here are in a position to make a difference to the economic development of our respective countries and our continent.
This therefore is an important gathering.
It provides further evidence of increasing cooperation between Southern African states.
These are on matters pertaining to our regional economic integration as well as infrastructure development and investments.
We wish to emphasise that governments alone cannot lead the process of regional integration, infrastructure development and investments.
Private sector entities are a pivotal partner in terms of trading and leveraging investment opportunities.
We are happy therefore that you are deliberating on these matters.
As government, our role is to ease the bottlenecks and make it easier for you to do business. That we are doing.
Both our governments are prepared to tackle the bureaucratic red tapes that businesses encounter so as to create a conducive environment for trade and investment to flourish.
Colleagues and friends,
As you are aware the developed North is currently facing serious economic turmoil, which is bound to affect Africa, given the manner in which global economies are interlinked.
While the situation is difficult for all, we should also remember that it presents opportunities.
These opportunities are for innovation and expansion into new markets, within the continent and also in the rising economies of the South such as China, Brazil and India.
More importantly, there is a need for the private sector to now pay more attention to African markets in order to be competitive and sustainable.
The need for increased intra-Africa trade and intra-Africa investments have therefore become urgent.
It is for this reason that South Africa believes in the approach of "Developmental Integration” with countries in the SADC region, so as to create sustainable economies of scale and productive economies in our region.
Developmental Integration places importance in building productive and industrial capacity in our economies and addressing supply-side constraints such as limited road, rail, ports and energy infrastructure.
We are optimistic that a deeper relationship between South Africa and Mozambique, which is premised on mutual benefit for all our people, will continue to grow.
This will contribute meaningfully to Developmental Integration and the growth of our region as a whole.
We have a good basis to achieve this integration. The continent is rich in natural resources, but, above all, it has the resourcefulness of its people.
The focus, therefore, must be on creating conditions that will release the creativity and productivity of the African people.
This Africa first approach is important. If Africa is to be the next economic frontier as all predictions indicate, it is up to us to ensure that we play a pivotal role in the economic future of our own continent.
What is required is that we do things that go beyond the ordinary. It cannot be business as usual on the African continent.
In this regard, our continent needs to not only be characterized as a potential consumer market, but also ensure that we are at the forefront of production and innovation on our continent.
In going beyond the ordinary, the investments we make and receive must have a sustainable developmental impact in our countries.
Therefore we must look at sectors such as energy, telecommunications and financial services. All these will help lay the ground for manufacturing industries to "take-off”.
Similarly, investments in rail, port and road infrastructure can enable the products produced to reach their markets domestically, regionally, continentally and globally.
Already a lot of work is being done in Africa to achieve such goals, which is why this continent has in it, countries that rank amongst the fastest growing economies in the world.
We congratulate Mozambique on being amongst the said economies.
A recent Africa Economic Outlook Report predicted that Mozambique is going to record positive growth rates of 7,7% in 2011. This country therefore has the potential to become one of the strongest economies in Africa.
Given that Mozambique still forms part of the top five South African trading partners on the continent, South African and Mozambican private sector entities therefore need to take advantage of this relationship.
They must take up the opportunities in the two economies innovatively.
We must caution that the investments we are encouraging on both sides are those that must create jobs and help us to improve the quality of life of our people.
These must be partnerships that ensure skills development, innovation, capital investments and technology transfer towards positive outcomes for our two economies.
The infrastructure is being created for these opportunities to be utilised.
The creation of the Maputo transport and development corridor linking the port of Maputo with South Africa's industrial heartland, symbolizes the importance of private sector participation and the importance of public-private partnerships.
The Mozal Aluminium Smelter, which was developed as part of the Maputo Corridor, is another clear example of public-private partnerships towards the industrialisation of our economies.
We look forward to many more successes and projects such as Mozal.
We will continue to encourage South African companies, State Owned Enterprises and SMEs, to invest in Mozambique across a broad spectrum of sectors and in partnership with Mozambican entities.
SASOL made one such investment in 2003, with the construction of an 865-kilometre gas pipeline at the value of 9.2 billion rand.
The pipeline ferries natural gas from the Temane and Pande fields in Mozambique to a distribution network in Secunda, South Africa.
SASOL also plans to partner with EDM of Mozambique to invest 1.8 billion rand in a 140-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant to be built in Mozambique.
It is envisaged that 51 percent of the electricity produced at the plant would mainly be consumed within the Mozambican market starting from 2013.
It is also worth mentioning in this Forum, that as the South African Government we are still committed to participating in the Matola-Phalaborwa Iron and Steel Initiatives.
This can be attributed to the fact that this project has the potential for facilitating the development of Maputo/Matola into a well developed regional industrial, trading and distribution hub in southern Africa.
Your Excellency,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The South African government has also successfully utilised the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as a catalyst for investments and development in Mozambique.
As I speak today, 40% of the IDC's total financial exposure on the African continent is in Mozambique, to the tune of 1.76 billion rand.
The IDC remains keen to invest further in Mozambique for the benefit of all our people.
In 2009, Eskom invested around 12.6 million rand in the construction of a wind power system using turbines in Mozambique's Inhambane province.
The project has the capacity to produce 300 kilowatts of power.
We remain committed to participating in more power generation projects in partnership with the Mozambican government, particularly in hydro-power generation in Northern Mozambique.
This will help us to realise the commitments made by our two governments when we signed the Northern Mozambique Power Development Initiative Agreement in 2004.
Your Excellency
Distinguished participants,
When we speak about going beyond the ordinary in Africa, we also refer to the manner in which we market the continent to the world.
International events have proven to be one of the most powerful means of opening up a positive side of the continent to a world that had been fed stereotypes and stories of gloom and doom.
The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup in our case is a recent example of an African success story that baffled the world and made Afro-pessimists to sit up and notice.
The second happened this past weekend.
When all pessimists had decided that Durban was the burial ground for the UN climate change negotiations, Africa sprang a surprise.
A deal was struck in Durban which had been elusive for a few years now. This was a coup for Africa.
In reality, Africa rescued the climate change negotiations process. We congratulate all the parties for the landmark outcome in Durban.
The hard work and determination by all parties to the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change paid off in the end.
In conclusion, I want to remind you, distinguished guests, that as we discuss important investments and partnerships, we should keep in mind the role of small, medium and micro enterprises, which remain our engines for growth.
We need to ensure that we develop our SMMEs through affording opportunities to supply and support mega-projects as well as incubation opportunities.
I am optimistic that today's gathering and deliberations will yield positive economic results for the people of South Africa and the people of Mozambique.
I wish you well with your deliberations.
I thank you.
