19 April 2007
Welcome President Nathan, your delegation and other members of your
delegation who are not here now. As you know, the President has come to South
Africa with a strong business delegation. We are very glad indeed that the
President could find the time to visit South Africa.
Historically, the relations between South Africa and Singapore are very
strong. So we are very glad to take advantage of the President's presence here
in South Africa to look at what we should do to further strengthen those
relations. I am glad the President will see quite a bit of South Africa
Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban, which I think is
very good indeed.
So indeed, you probably know this already, but over the years, beginning
1994, one of the areas in which we have had very strong relations with
Singapore is that of human resource development. As you know, this is a very
big problem in South Africa, i.e. the issue of skills and the necessary
capacity amongst our people. As you know, Singapore has great strength in this
area. The President has now communicated other offers that Singapore is making
to help us in South Africa address this very important issue.
The other area is that of economic co-operation. Again, the government in
Singapore has been very keen that we focus on this matter including a proposal
from Singapore that must still be pursued. This proposal suggests that due to
South Africa's geographic location, it becomes a hub that connects to Asia, the
rest of Africa and South America. Indeed the government of Singapore is very
keen that we work on this idea to see what can be done. I think we are
progressing towards this.
Singapore will later this year become the Chair of Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN). We, as South Africa, Southern African Development
Community (SADC) and Africa, have a very keen interest in strengthening this
partnership to address common challenges of development. The President has just
said that we should indeed look at the experience of ASEAN over the years
because this process of economic integration is also a big challenge for the
region and continent.
Looking at the experiences of ASEAN, strengths and weaknesses will help us
to speed up our own processes of integration. I think, President, that this
matter is materially important because later this year, in July, we will have a
two-day session of African Heads of State and Government to look at this very
question i.e. what other steps must be taken to achieve the political and
economic integration of the Continent. ASEAN's experience will be very useful
in terms of this discussion we will have in Africa during July.
President, I am very glad you are here and I am very certain this will
assist in strengthening the bilateral relations between South Africa and
Singapore, as well as that in multilateral fora. Welcome President and have a
good stay.
President Sellapan Ramanathan:
Thank you Mr President.
As the President has said, relations between our two countries have been
warm and friendly and long lasting. We have had a number of areas of
co-operation and areas in which we continue to co-operate defence and also in
international fora, the United Nations, Non Aligned Movement and gatherings of
various countries G-77.
The area in which we have focused our attention largely is that of trade
which has grown and last year it doubled that of the previous year to the
amount of approximately Sing $2 billion. We look forward to expanding this
relationship.
We had earlier proposed for discussion the prospect of a Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) between Singapore and South Africa. Since you are part of the
Southern African Customs Union (SACU), it will be necessary for all members of
the Union to be in agreement to move this process forward. We have done a
number of FTAs called a number of names India with Singapore and ASEAN, Japan,
China with Singapore and ASEAN, Australia with Singapore and ASEAN. Free trade
arrangements are working in many of these areas and I cannot see why it would
not be successful in South Africa.
The other area in which we want to co-operate is that of air services.
President Mbeki when he visited Singapore in 2005 and met the Prime Minister,
reached an understanding that both countries would work together to expand the
air services agreement and move towards an open skies agreement that we have
implemented with other countries.
Nowadays, international travel is so widespread that we want to see people
moving as tourists and businessmen, developing people-to-people relations and
air traffic support. As President Mbeki has said, South Africa is the hub of
the region. With your membership of SADC there is an even bigger role for South
Africa to play in providing the economic transformation in South Africa and in
the SADC region.
As President Mbeki has mentioned, we have in the past focused on technical
assistance to South Africa. Approximately 600 South Africans have been to
Singapore and participated in our various programmes. President Mbeki has
assured me that the experiences they have accumulated have been valuable to you
in South Africa. We are prepared to offer more opportunities for such
training.
As I said earlier, we are sponsoring a number of scholarships for South
Africans to study at our institutions of higher learning, particularly at the
Rajanam School of International Relations and Defence of Strategic Studies.
Suitably qualified candidates will be welcome. The School of Public Policy and
Public Administration has also, I am told, offered two scholarships into two
programmes for suitable candidates. Our universities too are collaborating. A
technological university has two memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the
universities of Natal and Witwatersrand.
As I mentioned earlier, we have been offering a number of training
facilities for South Africans and we will continue to do so. I am glad to
announce a special technical assistance project which we are launching in the
areas of technical and vocational training, hospital management and trade and
investment promotion. In our discussions, the possibility of sharing knowledge
and experiences on the promotion of tourism was raised.
The technical and educational vocational training will provide an overview
of Singapore's curriculum development process and basic skills and knowledge
that were identified in training needs and designing in house programmes for
your technical and vocational training. There will be five places for these
candidates.
The hospital management course offers five to eight places for South African
officials. The course will introduce the latest healthcare management theories
and practices and also equip participants with knowledge and skills that are
applicable to the management of hospitals in present day conditions.
I am accompanied by a business delegation of 22 members. Among them are
members of companies that are well known internationally.
* Somoan Corporation would like meet industrial developers who are dealing with
power issues, waste water treatment and other matter of public utilities.
* ST electronics is interested to meet with companies dealing with Information
Technology systems
* Singapore Land Transport Consortium wants to meet with transport ministries
and government agencies involved in land transportation sectors.
All these are signs of our growing interest in South Africa. It will be up
to them to seize the opportunity of the present day visit and continue with
business exchanges in the future. Overall I must say we are pleased with this
relationship and look forward to strengthening it with the passing of time.
I also want to praise the leadership of President Mbeki and the constructive
role South Africa has played in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). As
like-minded countries we are pleased to see South Africa playing such a
constructive role. I want to congratulate you Mr President.
Thank you.
President Mbeki:
With regard to that Mr President, I want to say we are only following in
Singapore's footsteps.
Questions and answers
Question: To both Presidents, if you could elaborate, President Nathan, on
some of the training exchanges that are being envisaged? To President Mbeki,
what do you see can be achieved in terms of skills development? Can you give us
some specific information?
Answer: President Nathan: I have no details on the programme. We have made
available the facilities we have for the training of South Africans at various
levels of skills in the areas of technical education and in some of our skills
development programmes which are intended to equip people to assume employment
in industries that are developing in Singapore and some of which will no doubt
develop in South Africa. It will be up to officials on both sides to work this
out. As far as we are concerned in Singapore, we are prepared to share our
experiences and also to provide facilities. The selection of the particular
courses will have to rest with South African officials.
President Mbeki: It would be across a broad band of issues which President
Nathan has already mentioned for instance, the issue of trade and investment
promotion, we have had a number of South Africans trained in Singapore in this
area because as you can imagine this would have been a very important area
considering the way in which Singapore has grown over a short period of
time.
We have had officials from Foreign Affairs, as diplomats, being involved in
economic and trade questions. It is important that diplomats are capacitated in
this way since it now standard to promote economic diplomacy in the course of
global diplomacy.
You have heard the President talk about vocational and technical training.
You are aware of the focus we are now placing of Further Education and Training
qualifications in South Africa. I am absolutely certain we are going to need
more trainers, more educators. So indeed, we would want to take up this offer
from Singapore to train trainers; vocational and educational training to ensure
that these Further Education and Training (FET) programmes result in the
qualified artisans we require. So it is across the field.
The President spoke about the issue of tourism. So to some extent South
Africa has the advantages and perhaps the disadvantages, of having so many
natural attractions. This may be a disadvantage because people may become
relaxed and expect the country to market itself. But a country like Singapore
has had to be more proactive in promoting itself as a tourist destination.
As you know, this tourist sector is one of the sectors identified in the
Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (AsgiSA) programme in terms of
employment generation. The training will be across the board and will cover
many things depending on South Africa's requirements.
Question: President Mbeki, what is your personal view of a Free Trade
Agreement with Singapore?
Answer: The President has reflected on this matter quite correctly. We as
South Africa would want this FTA with Singapore. But again, as the President
has said, we are members of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) so the
other countries Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana who are part of this Union must
agree. The Customs Union is talking about this to map out the way forward.
I must also say that there have also been some capacity constraints, despite
our desire, because of a whole variety of trade negotiations that SACU has
undertaken â Southern Common Market (Mercosur), India, and so on. A resource in
the region as regards the capacity to negotiate has been a bit stretched. This
matter is still under negotiation within the Union. This must first be
completed before we can enter into negotiations.
Question: Mr Presidents, I see ministers of defence and intelligence in both
your delegations. Could you kindly elaborate on the discussions underway in
this regard?
Answer: President Nathan: The Minister for Defence is here. We have had a
general exchange of views and are appreciative of South Africa's assistance to
us in making available facilities for training. Also, in the context of
terrorism, there is an understanding to co-operation in terms of the sharing of
information. I am not in a position to elaborate on the specifics. The two
ministers did meet here and will continue to discuss how best to strengthen
this relationship.
President Mbeki: As the President has said in terms of the Defence
Co-operation, the two countries have had an agreement since 1997. Singapore
does not have the capacity for training in artillery because it simply does not
have the space for such exercises. Singapore then shares the facilities of
South Africa's National Defence Force in terms of this training. This is a
programme that has been ongoing for ten years and will continue. Also, the
defence ministries are looking at what other areas of co-operation can be
identified and will therefore arrange a meeting of senior officials in the
first instance to look at these areas of co-operation.
The matter of intelligence co-operation as the President has said, I am sure
you realise this, is a standard feature of all intelligence services across the
globe, i.e. co-operation in the areas of terrorism, money laundering and trade
in narcotics. This affects everyone and criminal elements involved in these
activities to move from country to country. Even if there is no movement
between Singapore and South Africa, it may very well be that the knowledge that
Singapore has may be of assistance to South Africa. Generally, you can look
across the entirety of the global intelligence community, to realise that all
agencies effect systematic co-operation particularly in the areas of terrorism,
money laundering and trade in narcotics. These tend to be connected to each
other in some instances and have a tendency to move very rapidly across the
world. These are some of the areas in which there will be co-operation amongst
intelligence services of both countries.
Question: President Mbeki, back to the trade issues â you mentioned that
when Singapore assumes the Chair of ASEAN you would be interested in furthering
the Africa-Asia trade dialogue. Could you elaborate on what your vision is for
your region?
Answer: You know that Africa and Asia met in Indonesia in April 2005 to
commemorate the Bandung meeting of 1955 which was off course, commemorating
this Africa â Asia co-operation. This is, of course, a broader process to
intensify this co-operation between both continents.
While I was the Chair of the African Union in 2002 I visited Cambodia to
address the ASEAN Summit at the invitation of the King. Indeed, we talked about
the need to strengthen this partnership. I think what the President has said is
very important. We need to look at what the experience of ASEAN has been in
terms of regional integration; what was done, what worked, what did not? This
experience will be very directly relevant to what the African continent and the
SADC region are discussing, what do we need to do to accelerate our
integration? We need indeed, to look closely at this matter.
With regard to the AfricaâAsia co-operation process, there is a framework
which emerged from Bandung. We are meeting at Summit level in South Africa in
2009 with a Ministerial session being held in Egypt in 2008. This is a
continued process. ASEAN is, from our point of view, a successful grouping in
the processes of co-operation and integration. It would be useful to draw on
this example.
Question: President Mbeki, what is your personal vision for SADC looking at
the ASEAN experience?
Answer: I am not able to set dates. It is a matter to which SADC will
attend.
It is an urgent matter. South Africa in October 2006 hosted an Extraordinary
SADC Summit to assess this very matter. We were looking at what progress is
being made with regard to a SADC FTA, when will we come to the position of a
Customs Union that will include all 14 countries and not just the current five
as part of SACU, a common currency?
These are very practical matters. We met in an extraordinary SADC Summit to
look at these matters. There is a sense of urgency in the region with a view to
moving on these matters. I am sure, a more detailed look at the ASEAN
experience will assist us achieve this pace that people in the region are
interested in. There would not be any foot dragging. As I have said, the only
reason one would convene an Extraordinary Summit is because we believe the
matter is urgent enough to be addressed by such a meeting.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
19 April 2007
