Joint Communique on German - South African Binational Commission

24 October 2006

The fifth session of the South Africa - Germany Binational Commission (BNC)
took place at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, Germany on 23 to 24 October
2006.

The session was co-chaired by the German Foreign Minister, Dr Frank-Walter
Steinmeier and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of South Africa, Nkosazana
Dlamini Zuma.

Political consultations

During their political consultations, the ministers concurred that since
1994 co-operation between the two nations has developed into a broad-based and
intense partnership and that the Binational Commission (BNC) provides an
efficient and adequate framework for further co-operations in the fields of the
committees (defence, economy, development, environment, science and research,
culture).

Both ministers agreed that, based on the excellent bilateral relations
co-operation should be further intensified, particularly in areas of regional
and global interest, including peace and security issues on the African
continent and worldwide.

Among the topics discussed were conflict resolution, peace building and
other regional developments in Africa including Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), Sudan and Zimbabwe, the upcoming German presidency of Group of Eight
(G-8) and the European Union, as well as non-proliferation.

One aspect of the consultations was the co-operation in the preparation of
the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The World Cup was also discussed
in the BNC committees.

Committee reports

The following are the summaries of the reports presented by the joint
committees to the Binational Commission:

Defence

The tenth annual Republic of South Africa (RSA) - Federal Republic of
Germany (FRG) Defence Committee was held over the period 17 to 19 July 2006.
The wide range of military strategic topics discussed at this meeting and the
comprehensive co-operation programmes agreed to for 2006 and 2007 reflect a
significant growth in defence relations between the RSA and the FRG since the
last BNC. The annual navy to navy staff talks and the agreement for
co-operation recently signed between the Air Forces of the RSA and the FRG, as
well as the three authorised co-operation meetings on the A400M aircraft is
further testimony to the extent of relations between the two countries.

The past year has been highlighted by numerous successful training exchanges
benefiting landward, air, maritime and medical services. The deployment of
German Navy and Air Force assets to the RSA to participate in Exercise Desex
(Good Hope II) was lauded as a major success. Due to the operational value of
this deployment, the planning for an exercise of this nature has been included
in the annual co-operation programme for 2007. For the RSA it is vital to
capitalise on the collective experience of the German Navy, making training in
the maintenance and operation of the MEKO 200 Corvettes and the Type 209
submarine. Additionally, the joint acquisition management of the A400M
programme has created new opportunities for collaboration on the A400M
programme.

Economy

The development of the trade and economic relations between Germany and
South Africa has been very gratifying. The trade volume has risen continually
in 2005 it surpassed the 10 billion Euro mark. The dynamism of the bilateral
merchandise trade is also mirrored by the fact that in the period January to
July 2006 alone the trade volume amounting to more than 8 billion Euro already
almost reached the level of the total turnover of 2004. The two sides agreed to
further exchange data on mutual investments in their respective countries.

During the fifth economic consultations between South Africa and Germany, it
was pointed out that more long-lasting economic growth, which is likely to
result in further positive impact on the bilateral trade in goods and services,
could be expected in view of the promising economic developments in both
countries. The South African side welcomed the willingness shown by German
companies to make contributions by means of capital goods supplies, technical
know-how and foreign direct investments especially in projects related to
meeting the objectives of the Accelerated and Shared Growth for South Africa
(AsgiSA).

The envisaged economic growth, through AsgiSA, would require amongst other
things a new base load and peaking power stations, additional liquid fuels
refinery and other infrastructure projects to secure energy supply. It was
further acknowledged that there are other investment and co-operation
opportunities in the areas of biofuels, wind energy, solar power and energy
efficiency initiatives.

The two sides agreed that the German experience in hosting the Federation
International Football Associate (FIFA) World Cup 2006 will be useful for the
preparations of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The South African side
offered that the Department of Trade and Industry will be the point of contact
in this regard.

Further intensification and closer links between the two countries could be
expected in the light of the good co-operative framework provided by the BNC.
The German side would welcome further improvement in the investment
environment. Nevertheless the German side indicated a survey had rated South
Africa's investment environment as favourable.

In this context, the German side expressed concerns raised by companies
about the difficulties posed by the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment
(BBBEE) for German small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that may wish to invest
in South Africa and asked that the special circumstances of SMEs be taken into
account when implementing BBBEE.

The South African side declared its readiness to offer individual advice and
support around the implementation of BBBEE. In this context the German side
re-iterated its support for the political, economic and moral imperatives of
the Black Economic Empowerment policy.

The South African side explained the efforts it was making to promote
investments and outlined the steps being taken to review the investment
incentives currently available in South Africa. Skills shortage and
infrastructure limitations were highlighted as some of the constraints that
were being addressed in the efforts to encourage and accelerate economic
growth.

The German side shared its views on how the skills shortage issue could be
addressed through in-plant training and further training. Tourism is a dynamic
sector with a potential to grow and to contribute significantly to the South
African economy, especially in areas such as job creation and poverty
alleviation in the context of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Possible areas of co-operation are volunteer programmes, transport,
information technology, event management, language and greening. The two sides
agreed that the suspension of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations
was regrettable and that this could have negative effects for the development
needs of developing countries. Germany underlined that concessions on all parts
and in all areas are necessary to revive the WTO negotiations and called upon
South Africa to use its influence in the Group of Twenty (G-20) in this
respect.

On the other side the South Africa indicated that leadership would be
required on the part of the European Union (EU) and the United Statement of
America (USA) to progress the stalled WTO talks, particularly in the area of
agriculture. The South African side explained the state of play in the South
Africa – European Union (SA-EU) Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement
(TDCA) Review and the Southern African Development Community-European Union
(SADC-EU) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations and expressed the
hope that the EU would respond positively to the SADC EPA framework
proposal.

South Africa further expressed its view that a favourable response would
provide the momentum for constructive and speedy conclusion of the negotiations
and could expedite economic integration of SADC. The two sides agreed that the
proposed EU-South Africa Strategic Partnership could also contribute to the
deepening of the bilateral economic relations and provide further impetus for
the development of the SADC region.

Development

Over the last 12 years bilateral development co-operation has matured into a
genuine partnership with substantial results, in particular in the focal areas
"local governance and development", "good governance" and "skills development",
and HIV and AIDS as the major cross-cutting issue. The committee welcomed the
respective progress reports tabled. It was noted that the co-operation is
aligned with South African policies and priorities in particular the
Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and the
Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

The Committee underlined the commitment to fully align the South Africa –
Germany Bilateral Development Co-operation with the relevant EU – South Africa
Agreement, namely the TDCA and the new EU - SA Country Strategy Paper (2007 to
2013) in the spirit of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness.

Both sides confirmed the centrality of good governance and the guiding
principles of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Considering
the important role South Africa plays in promoting governance, development and
peace and security on the continent, the meeting agreed on the importance of
piloting trilateral co-operation programmes. Trilateral development
co-operation initiatives will draw experiences from the two countries'
knowledge and expertise and their human, institutional and financial resources,
with a view to jointly assist and support third countries or regional
initiatives.

A framework for implementation of such trilateral co-operation initiatives
was discussed and financial resources committed. With a view to the upcoming
FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, both sides emphasised the role of sports
for development and agreed to support youth development initiatives in South
Africa and other parts of the continent linked to the "street football world"
initiative, to strengthen South African Municipalities in the preparation for
the World Cup by linking them to the relevant experiences of German FIFA
cities; to make available integrated experts with relevant experience from the
World Cup 2006 to use the study and expert fund in a flexible manner.

The Committee noted the allocation of an additional 38,4 million euros (27,0
million euros for technical co-operation and 11,4 million euros for financial
co-operation) to the co-operation programme 2006/07.

Environment

Climate change, it was agreed to intensify co-operation in the field of
climate change, in particular the ongoing efforts in the multilateral arena, to
further develop the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol for the post 2012 period, broadening and
deepening contributions by parties to mitigation, strengthening effective
climate change adaptation programmes, and increasing climate related technology
co-operation. Co-operation should also be strengthened on the implementation of
the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, in particular the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM). It was further agreed to intensify bilateral co-operation
around climate change and both parties will conduct further discussions in this
regard during the UNFCCC COP 12 scheduled to take place in November 2006 in
Nairobi, Kenya.

Energy

South Africa and Germany are committed to the development of renewable
energy as the deployment of renewable energy technologies contributes to
sustainable development. Both countries will collaborate by means of exchange
of expert knowledge with the aim to set the right framework conditions which
will help increase the contribution from both electric renewable energy
applications and biofuels to the overall energy supply.

Air Quality Management

South Africa is in the initial stages of implementing the Air Quality Act
and ambient air quality standard have been published for public comment. Plans
are in place to develop a national Air Quality Information System. In this
regard both parties have agreed to co-operate whereby Germany makes available
its experience and experts from the federal government and/or the federal
states in this field specifically and other areas of air quality to provide
technical guidance, advice and comment in various areas of air quality
management. The technical support would largely be in the area of strategy and
policy implementation.

Green goal TM: The two countries agree that the environmental concept Green
Goal TM, which was developed and implemented in the context of the FIFA World
Cup 2006 in Germany, is suitable for limiting the environmental impacts linked
to major sporting events. They intend to co-operate on the greening of the FIFA
World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

Biodiversity

The 9th conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) will take place in Germany in 2008. At this time only two years are left
to demonstrate the world's achievements towards the 2010 target, a significant
reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and
national level.

On the other hand the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has clearly
demonstrated that the current loss of biodiversity and the related changes to
the natural environment are faster than ever before in human history and that
there is no sign of this process slowing down.

To reverse this trend clear progress has to be made. Thus the challenge for
COP nine is to produce tangible and concrete results. The two countries agreed
to strengthen co-operation and work closely together to meet this
challenge.

Science and technology

Intensive and productive co-operation has developed in research, technology
and higher education involving various actors including research institutions,
universities and industrial partners on both sides an covering areas from basic
research (e.g. astronomy, geo-sciences, marine and polar sciences) to market
oriented topics (e.g. laser application and production technologies).

On this basis important new initiatives have recently been implemented e.g.
in the field of capacity building through joint study courses. A special
project for Africa has been introduced between the Volkswagen Company and the
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) by establishing an international chair
for automotive manufacturing at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University at
Port Elizabeth. The chair will promote study programmes of DAAD for young South
African engineers by offering one-year study and practical experience
programmes at German Universities and industries.

In light of 2007/08 being the International Polar Year, excellent
opportunities exist for initiating co-operative activities. The inauguration of
the new German Neumeyer Station neighbouring the South African Antarctic
Research Base will offer new common research opportunities.

Following the discussions at the previous Joint Committee meeting, a number
of new initiatives have been identified for further consideration and possible
elaboration. These include, advanced manufacturing technologies, speech
recognition and natural language processing.

The challenges of global climate change, loss of biodiversity, as well as
the impact of mining on the environment e.g. water are topics for the future.
And, perhaps the most exciting visible form of co-operation: South Africa will
host the Science Tunnel Exhibition from Germany in May 2007 overlapping with
the annual Science Week.

Culture

In pursuance of the Agreement concerning cultural co-operation between the
Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the
Republic of South Africa signed on 10 March 1998, the second German-South
African cultural consultations were held at the Federal Foreign Office in
Berlin on 23 and 24 October 2006.

The productive consultations were characterised by an atmosphere of mutual
understanding and co-operation stemming from the long tradition of intensive
cultural and educational co-operation both sides have enjoyed. The discussions
provided further opportunity to review the following areas of bilateral
cultural co-operation and lay a viable foundation for the interest-oriented and
demand-based promotion of the following areas:
* co-operation on language and cultural programmes
* exchanges in the fields of the performing arts, visual arts, film, literature
and capacity building in certain areas
* co-operation on the preservation of the cultural heritage (archives, museums
and libraries)
* programmes related to the youth
* co-operation in connection with the 2006/10 FIFA World Cups.

Other
The South African delegation invited their German counterparts to South Africa
for the next meeting of the German-South African Binational Commission.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
24 October 2006