Your Excellency, President Lula da Silva,
Business representatives from South Africa and Brazil,
Distinguished guests,
It is an honour for me to address this South Africa-Brazil Business Forum.
Economic interaction is a vital component of our bilateral relations.
Many of us have fond memories of the successful business roundtable discussion that took place in October 2009 in Brazil.
We had brought together captains of industry from both our countries from sectors like energy, information technology, mining, finance, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals.
The opportunity once again presents itself for us not only to continue our discussions but to take concrete action.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We firmly believe that there is a great potential to significantly expand the scope of South-South trade.
This explains our heightened efforts to strengthen our economic relations with other countries of the South.
Brazil is a key partner in this regard.
We have mechanisms to develop cooperation.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2009 by the South African Department of Trade and Industry and the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
We are working together on an implementation plan that will structure trade and investment initiatives to benefit both South Africa and Brazil.
The envisaged launch of the Brazil - South Africa Business Forum will further strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries.
It will also ensure that other important agreements are finalised timeously.
Our Department of Trade and Industry, which is represented here today, and our provincial trade and investment agencies, all look forward to facilitating mutually rewarding business relationships.
Mr President,
Your country has maintained its position as South Africa’s largest trading partner in Latin America for the past five years.
Bilateral trade between South Africa and Brazil maintained an upward trend between 2005 and 2009, growing from 10 billion rand to more than 19 billion rand.
South Africa is positioned to be a strategic gateway to Africa for the Caricom and Mercosur groups.
The further exploration of these links will take our economic relations to even greater heights.
To succeed, we need strong transportation links between our regions, so that we can take advantage of the many opportunities for enhanced trade.
It is vital that we give attention to the formation of partnerships to strengthen our shipbuilding industries.
This will enable us to lessen our reliance on foreign vessels to conduct trade in the South Atlantic.
Going forward, our maritime and aviation industries should be a key part of our strategy to reach our trade targets.
Ladies and gentlemen,
There are many other opportunities for cooperation.
The recent visit to Brazil by South Africa’s Minister of Health and his provincial counterparts should pave the way for future cooperation on health.
Areas would include ensuring universal access to health care, financing health services, and improving health systems management.
In addition, we want to explore the joint production and supply of pharmaceutical products to domestic markets and other countries.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Education is a key priority for South Africa.
We hope to draw on Brazil’s ability to transform the content and delivery of education through monitoring and evaluation.
We want to follow Brazil’s example of using education as a driver of economic and social development.
Cooperation with Brazil in renewable and nuclear energy is another priority for South Africa.
Your Excellency,
We appreciated the opportunity to interact with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China – the so-called BRIC group of countries - alongside the IBSA Summit in April.
We were also privileged to participate in the IBSA-BRIC Business Forum.
We look forward to more interaction with the BRIC grouping given the importance of these countries in the emerging global economic environment.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Your Excellency,
South Africa has hosted the finest Soccer World Cup.
We have no doubt that Brazil will host an excellent tournament in 2014 and a successful Olympic Games in 2016.
In hosting the tournament, we have developed our own expertise and capacity.
These have now been tried and tested.
To this end South African companies are ready to collaborate and partner with Brazilians companies.
We are keen to share experiences and learn from each other.
Let us start this process today with the companies that are present in this Forum.
We are pleased that our two countries have already been actively engaged on tourism issues, particularly related to hosting the FIFA World Cup.
We believe that, working together, we can do more to meet both the national challenges of our two countries and our common global challenges.
In this context, our business component must play a key role.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to personally thank President Lula for his cooperation and support in the many areas of bilateral relations.
We truly appreciate your commitment, Mr President, to globally advance the development agenda, South-South cooperation and the fight against poverty.
We look forward to deeper and stronger relations between South Africa and Brazil.
I thank you
