of the Republic of South Africa, at Tsinghua University, China
26 September 2007
Programme director
Vice-Chancellor
Your Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
On behalf of my delegation, the government and people of the Republic of
South Africa, I express greetings to the people of the People's Republic of
China (PRC). We have great appreciation for the all the hospitality shown to
us. Thank to the Tsingua University for unifying us.
Programme director, let me begin by commending the commitment of China to
assist South Africa and Africa in human resource development and investment.
South Africa is equally committed to strengthening the development of China in
terms of the supply of materials and sharing of technology.
In our Second Decade of Democracy, we are faced with consolidating our gains
since 1994, which is the year in which we gained our freedom, and confront the
challenges that lie ahead in this new millennium.
China and South Africa have a special historical relationship of friendship
and mutual ties which stretches back to more than a hundred years. In fact, a
small number of Chinese immigrants arrived in South Africa's Cape Colony from
the late seventeenth century onwards. They were mainly merchants and
small-scale traders.
The relations between China and the African continent were strengthened by
your own maritime pioneer, the great Zheng He, when he captained an exploratory
ship that visited Somalia, Kenya and Madagascar among the 30 places he visited
between 1405 and 1433. Chinese-made porcelain which was found at the
archaeological excavations Mapungupwe indicates that trade with South Africa as
early as a thousand years ago.
Most importantly, we must remember that colonialism robbed our countries not
only of our natural resources, but also human resource development, which is
very urgent because we have to make up for lost time.
With the discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886, South Africa
entered a new phase of economic development. In 1904, the Anglo-Chinese Labour
Convention and the Transvaal Labour Importation Ordinance made possible the
introduction of indentured labour into the South African gold mines. It is
estimated that after 1904, more than 63 000 indentured labourers were imported
to South Africa to work in these gold mines in South Africa.
Why were the Chinese brought to South Africa? Chinese labourers were
recruited to our country to supplement a much-needed labour force which was
largely unskilled. For this reason, this served as an important foundation for
a strengthening and expansion of our relationship. The descendants of these
early Chinese form a significant minority in South Africa.
China and South Africa share a history of being colonised. During the dark
days of colonialism, the Chinese did not turn their back on us and say 'let
South Africans deal with their own problems.' China supported liberation
movements in a number of African countries engaged in struggles for democracy
and freedom. In my own country, we benefited from the generous support of China
in the fight we waged internationally to end apartheid.
When others were plundering Africa's natural resources and only interested
in securing global hegemonic influence, our Chinese friends contributed in
building up infrastructure. This legacy is still there for all to see in
countries such as Tanzania and Ghana. Relations between South Africa and China
have been beneficial to both countries, since the establishment of diplomatic
relations in 1998, which will enable the people of South Africa and China to
celebrate together. This also shows how much we have come in strengthening
relations between the two countries.
The end of the Cold War has ushered in a new world order and of course the
buzz-word for this new order is globalisation has become a key descriptive word
for this new era. Globalisation has shrunk the world in space and time.
Developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have changed our
world in many ways that could hardly be imagined 50 years ago.
However, it is a matter of great concern that, despite the enabling
technological advancements brought about by globalisation, South Africa's share
of global trade remains very little which stands at 2%. A world we live in is
not based on equality between nations and peoples. A gap between rich and poor
countries continues to widen. So is the gap between the rich and the poor
within countries and, in particular, within developing countries as well.
However, we realise that our challenges will not be solved by simply
complaining and doing nothing. It is for this reason South Africa is building
partnerships and confronting our challenges.
In our endeavour to meet the development goals, we realise that we need to
place emphasis on developing our infrastructure and build our skills base. We
are determined, as South Africa, to be one of the countries that will meet the
development goals.
The People's Republic of China has become a significant world player with
its rapidly expanding economy. After the United States, its economic power is
now to be reckoned with. The great logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell
predicted Chinaâs growth and ascension in his 1922 book, the ironically titled
The Problem of China. In his visit to China in 1920 and 1921, he saw China
growing to an international industrial powerhouse.
Its accession to the World Trade Organisation is an indication of its
acceptance to the world economy. I am glad that my country was one of those
that supported China in this regard.
As we meet again with China in the Bi-National Commission, we have also
taken our relationship to a higher level and we are committed to taking this
relationship into a higher level. It is for this reason South Africa has
declared China a strategic partner to share the success of China and South
Africa. I am encouraged that our countries are committed to deepening
co-operation and to grow bilateral relations in politics, the economy, trade
and investment, technology, education, human resource development and tourism.
We adopt a win-win approach.
This has been translated practically. For instance, in the first eleven (11)
months of 2006, bilateral trade volume had reached more than US$8 billion, a
significant increase of 34,5 percent compared with the same period in the year
2005.
Mutual co-operation and benefit between China and South Africa has great
potential to grow even further in areas such as agriculture, mining,
manufacturing and education as an important area as it has a direct bearing to
the much needed skills.
When the meetings of the China-South Africa Bilateral Commission (BNC) took
place in 2001 and 2004, we agreed to solve our problems through solidarity and
co-operation. Through this Bilateral Commission, we agreed on these issues:
* we agreed to elevate the strategic partnership to new levels,
China reaffirmed its commitment to build a partnership based on long-term
stability, equality and mutual benefit,
* China agreed to link our two economies by supporting mutual trade and
investment,
* we agreed on improving market access for products into the markets of China
and South Africa,
* acknowledge the role of the United Nations (UN) in safeguarding peace and
multilateralism, for the maintenance of peace and security in the world. China
expressed its willingness to work together with South Africa in skills transfer
and development.
In our BNC this time we agreed to lift the relations to an even higher level
to work on:
* poverty
* human resource development
* commerce
* and people to people relationships
South Africa is doing well in terms of economic growth. We have put in place
a sound macro-economic framework that has been hailed internationally as among
the best. As a result, the investment climate has improved tremendously from
what it was before 1994.
Twenty years before 1994 our country had been experiencing negative economic
growth. Encouragingly, the thirteen years from 1994 when we liberated
ourselves, we have seen a consistent and unbroken record of economic
growth.
Nevertheless, this economic growth is not shared equitably and is not
translating to adequate employment creation. We still face challenges of
poverty alleviation and developing an inclusive economic environment. Hence, we
have developed a plan for South Africa called the Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) in which we focus on economic growth that
responds to the needs of the poor. One way of doing that is by intense skills
transfer to the millions who have no skills or jobs.
Our government is striving to achieve an annual growth rate of as least 6%
to more meaningfully impact on the quality of our people's lives.
Ladies and gentlemen, the supply of relevant skills is crucial to reach our
economic objective dream. What stands between South Africa and full development
that will benefit most South Africans, are the critical skills many of which
you also offer in this university? These are professionals in Information
Communication Technology, finance, and engineering, project management. We also
need artisans, particularly master artisans, agro-specialists and teachers in
the technical fields.
For this reason, among others, we developed the Joint Initiative for
Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) which your government is supporting.
Thankfully, we have to produce skilled personnel for our large public and
private infrastructure projects totalling US$60 billion (Sixty billion US
dollars), for the success of our development including the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
As you are aware that South Africa is hosting the 2010 soccer world cup and we
would like to host a truly African world cup. This requires a lot of work in
order to leave a legacy that will last long after the games have ended. One of
the legacies we would like to create is that of transport infrastructure. We
would want from the world cup to showcase Africa as a tourist destination as
well as efficiency and the use of technology which is crucial. We promise that
the world cup will be a success just as we know that the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing will be a success.
It is also for this reason that focus is placed on funding Further Education
and Training (FET) colleges to produce artisan skills like boilermakers,
fitters, electricians ICT and financial graduates. Practically, it means we
have placed an investment into FET colleges to a tune of US$260 million to
train artisans and that is not nearly enough and twenty five percent of our
national budgets go to education.
Programme director, I am certain that Tsinghua University can be a partner
in this regard, In fact, you are a natural partner. I have been made aware that
there is a partnership between this University and the University of
Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town. These are distinguished
institution with a long and successful history. Since it was established in
1911, this centre of excellence has lived up to motto of 'Self-discipline and
Social commitment.' We seek to produce technicians with a social conscious and
global outlook in South Africa.
You have a proud reputation of producing students who are of a high quality.
Our very own tertiary institutions in South Africa can benefit South Africa
from forging partnerships with Tsinghua. This showcases the strategic
partnership between South and Africa and China. The global mission is to make
the world a more just and equitable place for humanity to live. I believe that
the strategic objective of advancing developing nationsâ interests would be
less likely to be achieved if our two countries do not work together.
We invite you to partner with our institute in research, student and teacher
exchange and in applications of research, private sector and government.
South Africa has six comprehensive universities, another six universities of
technology and eleven traditional universities. Of these six (6) offer
engineering degrees and another six (6) offer medical degrees. The University
of South Africa (Unisa) is one of the largest universities in the world, which
offers distance learning. Unisa teaches two hundred and forty thousand (240
000) of the seven hundred thousand (700 000) university students in South
Africa. However, we feel this is not enough. We need more universities and
while we seek to expand, we have to send our students all over the world. We
count on you as partners with your impressive teaching and research
capacity.
We hope to benefit more from the scientific advancement made by China and to
contribute, as a partners in the larger objective of a more caring and
human-centred global order. We look forward to engagements with you at all
levels, and more especially at a level where students can engage so they can
provide the next generation of South Africans and Chinese which will sustain a
long lasting friendship between the two countries.
Xie xie
Issued by: The Presidency
26 September 2007
