AfricaâMozambique Heads of State Economic Bilateral Meeting, Presidential
Guesthouse, Bryntirion Estate, Pretoria
18 September 2007
Comments by Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the media. We have covered a lot of
ground in the meeting that has just been concluded â this included a
combination of progress reports on various areas of work as well as areas where
we have been doing work and are now ready to sign agreements.
Beginning with tourism and environment issues: you are aware that we have
been doing work in establishing transfrontier conservation parks and we have
received a presentation in this meeting with a particular focus on how to
prepare ourselves, not just as South Africa and Mozambique, but really as a
southern African region, because there is a set of cascading transfrontier
conservation areas across the countries of Southern Africa. How we prepare
ourselves to ensure that we have the necessary supporting infrastructure by
2010 that will make transfrontier conservation areas strong tourist attractions
by 2010. The presentation therefore addressed work that is underway to ensure
that for instance, all of the landing strips in these transfrontier
conservation areas are in place by 2010.
We also looked at areas of infrastructure and capacity building, including
co-operation between both countries in this regard. Perhaps finally on tourism
and environment related issues, we have been negotiating around the completion
of a fisheries and marine and coastal management agreement. We have come to an
agreement which is now being subjected to the legal and constitutional
processes in each country and we hope that this will be signed in the next
meeting. On the finance issues: we have also been negotiating an Avoidance of
Double Taxation Agreement and as you will be aware, this is one of the
Agreements we have signed today.
We have also reached agreement on the establishment of one-stop border posts
but more immediately, the implementation of the Lubombo-Ressano Garcia Border
Post. This is a process that will also involve some construction work that will
take place at that border post. This is work that will be shared between South
Africa and Mozambique, portions of which will be allocated to each country
respectively. This work is work that will begin to be implemented â accordingly
we have begun the process of calling for tenders, the construction is expected
to have begun by February 2007 toward this establishment of one-stop border
posts.
We reviewed progress on the implementation of the mutual assistance
agreement on customs and administration and basically, it was a report of the
degree of improvement in the administration that has resulted from the
finalisation of this agreement. Mozambique has also informed us of progress
being made in the establishment of its own financial intelligence centre. This
is one of the mechanisms with which to deal with the challenge of money
laundering. There was a lot of co-operation between Mozambique and South
Africa's own financial intelligence centre in this regard.
On trade and industry related issues: we reviewed progress on the
implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Economic
Co-operation and it is evident that we are beginning to see instances of
co-operation as a direct consequence of this MoU â viz co-operation between our
standards organisations (South African Bureau of Standards - SABS - and
Mozambican counterpart). We are starting to see co-operation in the area of
trade negotiations and training and capacity building is this area. We are also
beginning to exchange and share experiences in the area of small and medium
size enterprise development. We also agreed to prepare for the next meeting a
comprehensive report on the various spatial development initiatives currently
underway. We also received a report from Mozambique on the Maputo Metallurgical
Complex â this is feasibility work that is being done on the viability of
establishing a steel plant in Mozambique. This is work that is being done
collaboratively. Mintec on the South African side is the main party that has
been working with the Mozambican government in this regard.
On minerals and energy related issues: the Mozambican government updated us
on progress towards the assumption of control by Mozambique of the Cahora Bassa
Hydro-Electric Facility. The work has basically been completed although we are
now dealing with the matter of raising the necessary finance but the process of
taking over the Portuguese stake in this project has been completed. We also
received a progress report on the Northern Mozambique Power projects â it is an
area in which we have been closely co-operating in terms of getting projects of
the ground but also in terms of the arrangements in terms of Eskom's relation
to the power-generation that will take place at those facilities.
On transport and communication related issues: we discussed the
rehabilitation of the Ressano Garcia railway line which is already underway
including the upgrading and the expansion of the rolling stop locomotives and
wagons that is also underway. There is very strong co-operation between
Spoornet and its Mozambican counterpart. We also received a report on
co-operation in the area of civil aviation â there is growing air traffic
between South Africa and Mozambique â there are already seven airlines that
operate between the two countries.
On agricultural issues: we received a progress report on the implementation
of the bilateral agreement on agriculture that showed that there is very good
progress being made in a number of areas. Finally, on immigration related
issues: we reviewed the implementation of the visa abolition agreement,
repatriation of undocumented Mozambicans as well as the issue of the 24-hour
operation of the Lubombo-Ressano Garcia Border Post. Again, in relation to all
of these immigration related issues we have achieved very significant progress.
The agreements are functioning very smoothly.
So, generally, it was a meeting that registered a lot of progress across a
number of fronts and this shows the deepening relations between both
countries.
Questions and answers
Question: Minister Mpahlwa, in the light of developments in Zimbabwe, did
the meeting discuss this at all with regard to illegal immigrants and a report
today that Zimbabwe is closer to collapse than ever?
Answer: This issue did not come up in the bilateral discussions but I am not
sure whether the Presidents may have reflected upon this in their own
discussions.
Question: Minister Changi, could you elaborate a bit more on the Mozambican
Metallurgical Complex?
Answer: (Minister Mpahlwa) This is an initiative based on a possibility we
think is there. Mintek has been working quite closely with the government of
Mozambique and the work that has so far been done is pre-feasibility work.
(Minister Changi) I agree with Minister Mpahlwa. This is an initiative we
are looking at building in Matola. We have received a recommendation from the
Heads of State to prepare a document to present at the next meeting of the
Heads of State. We are looking at building this in Matola in order to build the
economy.
Question: Ministers, could you talk about challenges in terms of the border
issues including human trafficking? Has this issue been raised and other border
security issues?
Answer: On the issue of human trafficking: I am not sure if Minister Changi
has any knowledge in this regard but this is a matter we would have to
specifically address.
Answer: What we are looking at working towards is really to make sure that
in all border posts between both countries we can enhance the levels of
efficiency of operation and we can effectively make them one-stop border posts.
We are at the moment prioritising the Lubombo-Ressano Garcia border post but
work will cascade towards other border posts.
Question: Minister Mpahlwa, you spoke of undocumented Mozambicans â are
there no undocumented South Africans in Mozambique or have you just ignored
this matter? On the matter of civil aviation, we know that there are two big
companies in Mozambique that would like to fly to South Africa but because of
agreement between the state airlines of both countries, this airline is unable
to do so. Are you aware of this?
Answer: I am not aware of any undocumented South Africans in Mozambique but
the same principles would apply if there were. They would have to be
repatriated to South Africa.
On the civil aviation issue to which you were referring: I am not
particularly aware of the case you mentioned but I think we are working towards
strengthening our co-operation in the area of civil aviation. One such area is
an air services agreement and I think the general exposition would be towards
ensuring we open up our skies and enhance the flow of traffic between the two
countries.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
18 September 2007
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs (http://www.dfa.gov.za)
