Your Excellency, President Mills
Honourable Ministers
Members of the media
On behalf of the people and government of the Republic of South Africa, we extend a warm welcome to my brother and friend, President John Evans Atta Mills, and his delegation on his first state visit to South Africa.
We are delighted to host His Excellency and to have this interaction with Ghana, a country that has a special place in the history of the African continent.
We recall how our freedom and that of many African peoples, was inspired by that great Ghanaian, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the icon of Pan-Africanism, a visionary and uncompromising proponent of the decolonisation and independence of Africa.
Lessons from Dr Nkrumah and other African icons continue to guide us as we navigate the difficult terrain that is world politics today, especially in affirming the place and role of Africa in international affairs.
Your Excellency, let me also use this opportunity to thank the people and successive governments of Ghana for the solidarity and support we received during the struggle for liberation.
The African continent, including your beautiful country stood by us, determined that they would not rest until South Africa was free.
Your visit will take us further in consolidating our bilateral relations, which are structured under the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation that was officially inaugurated in 2007.
During our discussions today, we emphasised the importance of further deepening economic ties.
We welcome the progress thus far. In recent years, trade between South Africa and Ghana has grown significantly.
South African exports have grown from less than one billion rand in 1998 to over three billion rand in 2008.
We thank you, Mr President, for creating an opportunity for South African business people to invest in Ghana.
There are more than eighty South African multinational and small scale companies registered in Ghana.
The South African investors are prevalent in the following sectors: mining, retail, insurance, transport, tourism, banking, telecommunication, construction, services, franchising, manufacturing, fishing, advertising, aviation and energy.
Together we have identified areas of further expansion. These include tourism, communication technologies, mining, agriculture and infrastructure development.
Your Excellency, we also wish to strengthen the South Africa-Ghana science and technology cooperation.
We already work together on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project. This will be the largest, most powerful, radio telescope ever built. The telescope will be able to probe the edges of our Universe, and will help us to answer fundamental questions in the fields of astronomy, physics and cosmology.
It will lead to improved Information and Communications Technologies for all Africans and increased economic growth as a result.
The bid is now between a consortium of nine African countries against the Australia-New Zealand partnership.
The African SKA bid is led by South Africa and includes Ghana, Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia.
We are all working hard to ensure that Africa is declared the winner when the bid is announced early next year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In our discussions, we also reflected on developments in our respective regions. We also exchanged views on political developments on the continent.
The continent continues on an unstoppable march towards a democratic, prosperous and equal Africa, but this is not without its challenges. One of these challenges is in Libya.
In line with the African Union (AU), we have said continuously that the future of Libya must be determined by the people of Libya.
The situation in Libya has been of concern as it has been accompanied by the undermining of the African continent’s role in finding a solution.
It remains our view that the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 has been abused to further interests other than to protect civilians and assist the Libyan people.
The AU Peace and Security Council is meeting on Thursday and Friday this week in Addis Ababa to deliberate on the unfolding situation in Libya. In our meeting this morning we also deliberated on the global and multilateral matters of interest and concern.
On the international front, we have reiterated the need to reform the United Nations (UN), particularly the UN Security Council as well as international financial institutions.
These have to reflect the increasingly important role and interests of Africa and the developing world.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I conclude by reiterating our pleasure in hosting our esteemed guest, President Mills and his delegation in South Africa on this historic occasion.
I thank you.
Source: The Presidency
