E Thabethe: Women in business trade visit to Netherlands

24 April 2007

Honourable ambassadors
Diplomats
Ms WL Gillis, Burleson LLM, Director Legato Training College, Deputy
Chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce
Bert Koenders, Minister of Development Co-operation
Karin van Rooyen, Chairwoman Federation of Business Women
Ms Nana Ditodi, Deputy President of South African Women Entrepreneurs' Network
(SAWEN)
Government officials
Fellow South African and friends

Honourable ambassador, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour and a
privilege to address all of you on this special occasion. Indeed, I and the
rest of the South Africa delegation are honoured to be back in the Netherlands.
This return visit has been a culmination of many interactions and an exchange
of visits by groups and individuals who are part of SAWEN and or Yente. Also on
behalf of the South African government I wish to thank you for your invitation
and sincere enthusiasm towards maintaining and nourishing this critical
relationship, which in my opinion will go a long way.

Ladies and gentlemen, as much as I am not a stranger to many of you gathered
here allow me to officially introduce myself. My name is Elizabeth Thabethe and
I am one of the two Deputy Ministers of Trade and Industry serving under the
leadership of Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa. My overall responsibility is to
mainstream the issues of the second economy into the broader economy whilst
facilitating the growth and the sustainability of small to medium sized
enterprises. This includes ensuring equitable sharing and distribution of the
benefits derived from the growth of our economy. Part of this includes
addressing the equity issues in terms of race, gender and geographical spread.
I'm also responsible for the smooth facilitation of the consumer and corporate
regulatory matters in this portfolio.

Honourable ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, I was officially requested to
address you on the business opportunities that exist in my country.

Based on the fact that I have accepted this invitation, I have concluded to
further expand on this by highlighting possible co-operation that can be
facilitated. Allow me to first start by introducing you to South Africa, the
rainbow nation, alive with possibilities. I can proudly assure you that South
Africa's future is a very positive one. Accompanied with hope, our government
is very inspired about the progress made so far. The majority of our people are
optimistic about their future as a result we are ranking in the world on the
optimism index.

Our businessmen and women are optimistic about the year ahead, making them
the third most optimistic internationally. When consulted they affirmed to us
as government that they were convinced that our country has indeed entered the
age of hope as asserted by President Mbeki. My visits to other countries now
lately have reaffirmed all of this. It is on this basis that I wish to
encourage all business people here to consider South Africa as their first
investment and holiday destination.

Honourable ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, the history and the relations
of our two countries date back to the creation of a trading post by the Dutch
East Indian Company in Cape Town in 1652. As much as the characteristics of
this relationship have been both positive and negative, it is good to finally
see that the positives outweigh the negatives. Gatherings of this nature are a
testimony to this. The Netherlands is South Africa's firth largest export
destination globally and the third largest in Europe. But this does not
exclusively represent Netherlands destined exports because some of these
exports are re-exported to the larger European market. Nonetheless, the country
remains one of South Africa's major trading partners.

Total trade with the Netherlands increased from R5,2 billion in 1995 to
R20,3 billion in 2005. Though trade had been maintaining a positive growth rate
throughout the period, a decline of about 10% was recorded in 2003 from 17,6
billion to 15,8 billion. This was both from the import and export side. This
decline was in line with the overall trade performance in Europe during the
period. It was, however, short lived South Africa as 5 and 20 percent increases
followed in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Honourable ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, though we have consistently
achieved a positive trade balance with the Netherlands over the last decade our
negative trade balance with Europe continues to show a steady increase. Thus
showing the need to continue searching for mechanisms to address this negative
trend through stronger and deeper economic relations with the European Union
(EU) in particular. The trade flows between the two countries are sizable,
notwithstanding the relatively low profile of our bilateral relations at an
institutional level. Nonetheless, this is complemented by a highly active
relationship at the business level through the South Africa Netherlands Chamber
which operates in both countries. Its main brief is to facilitate business
linkages between South Africa and Dutch companies as well as create awareness
about opportunities and the business environment in both countries. It is very
impressive and quite historical for me to see that today we are further
strengthening with a specific focus being on women. The relationship between
Yente and SAWEN comes at a critical stage where we as the South African
government are rigorously searching for opportunities that will add value
towards our own efforts of fast tracking and growing women
entrepreneurship.

Honourable ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, the growth of women
entrepreneurship is fundamental and very critical to us in growing the South
African economy. South African women today make up more than 50% of our
population. As you might have read or heard in the news, recently South Africa
has reported a 4% increase in its economic growth mainly due to the successful
implementation of various policy interventions. As stipulated by Deputy
President Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, this growth has largely been due to the
increased domestic consumer spending of the new established middle class who
happens to be black and female. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the major concerns
of Mrs Mlambo-Ngcuka is the decline of locally manufactured goods and services
that would help us to create jobs and thus eradicate poverty. It is exactly in
this area where we see women entrepreneurship playing a critical role. As part
of identifying possible business opportunities available in South Africa, I
would like to further elaborate on various interventions that we have embarked
upon as part of creating these very opportunities.

Ladies and gentlemen, under the leadership of Deputy President
Mlambo-Ngcuka, my country has introduced a revised economic plan referred to as
the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA). This is
aimed at assisting us to further broaden and grow our economy for it to benefit
more people. Amongst others, AsgiSA will assist us to make the necessary
interventions to the first economy to accelerate progress towards achieving a
high level of economic growth and development of at least 6% a year. Through
it, we are hoping to reduce unemployment. To engage with these we have
allocated R372 billion for AsgiSA's carefully selected programmes. Through our
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the public sector partnering with the
private sector, we hope to make huge investments to amongst others:

* meet the demands of electricity
* provide efficient and competitive logistics infrastructure
* expand and modernise the telecommunications infrastructure
* satisfy the demands of water.

All of you interested in doing business with us around these areas are
welcome to get in touch with the embassy representatives for more
information.

To get the relevant skills in our country, we have embarked on an
international skills recruitment drive. This involves recruiting those in
possession of relevant skills like engineering, science and technology, finance
skills development interventions have been prioritised for the following areas:
business process outsourcing (BPO), tourism, construction, agro-procession,
chemicals, aerospace, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and
clothing and textile industries amongst others.

To stimulate and grow entrepreneurship we have identified the following
areas, business processing, tourism, chemicals, bio-fuels, metal and
metallurgy, wood pulp and paper, agriculture, creative industry and clothing
and textile. I'm aware that in areas like agriculture and chemicals our
engagement with the Netherlands can grow from strength to strength. For this
mission in particular, I am aware that the major focus is on ICT, agriculture,
mining and the creative industry hence I have brought with women owning and
managing enterprises in these sectors.

Ladies and gentlemen, after carefully studying the relationships that
already exist and the ones we are further strengthening, I have identified
three areas of focus for us to grow women entrepreneurship. This is in the
areas of export, skills development and knowledge transfer. In terms of export,
already we should ensure that women are part of the initiative of developing
our Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) exporters. Through the CBI that offers
capacity building programs for Business Support Organisations (BSO) such as
Trade and Investment South Africa (TISA). Similar workshops should also be
conducted for organizations like SAWEN on export promotion.

As part of AsgiSA, with regards to skills development the expertise of and
co-operation with the international community is of utmost importance to carry
most of the objectives of the programme. Key interventions identified that need
to be addressed speedily amongst others include infrastructure development. The
government has set aside R370 billion for infrastructure development. A number
of challenges however cannot be overlooked. South Africa needs relevant
technical skills like engineers, artisans and project mangers. The scarcity of
these professional skills is absolutely critical and we can work together in
these areas.

Very relevant to this mission, in the areas of sector investment strategies,
strategies have been developed for sectors with growth potential. These sectors
include tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Other sectors to be
considered include agricultural processing, metal and mineral beneficiation,
clothing and textiles, creative industries as well as durable consumer goods.
Linked to the BPO is information technology (IT) and ICT, a great opportunity
exists specifically focusing on access and usage of the internet, alternative
communications methods and cell phone technology linkages. Being ICT connected
has further proven to be the best business method of assisting business people
to share and access global information. Access to information is one of the key
challenges facing our entrepreneurs, especially those based in rural and
peri-urban areas hence this will also be crucial for consideration and
adoption.

In the area of mining South African women have done well. As we are one of
the largest gold and diamond producers, through beneficiation our women have
been empowered. Women from both countries can form joint ventures for the
actual manufacturing, designing and selling of jewellery. Our creative
industry, in particular the arts and craft sector, has been well fused with
this industry to produce unique and globally competitive products. Some of our
women have even successfully managed to buy stakes in these companies to be
part of the equity shareholders.

The tourism sector has done extremely well. Many of you like the
breathtaking landscape of our country, its weather and its people, and through
partnerships many can derive positive economic gains.

Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I believe in all of these areas both
our countries can benefit tremendously and it is to this type of cooperation
that I pledge to give my full leadership and support. I wish to thank the
Department of Trade, employment and communications, the Ministry of Justice,
NUTEK, Sweden International Development Agency (SIDA) especially our host and
organisers of the study tour, the Netherlands, we thank you for all your
support, the experience, knowledge gained and the laughter we have shared.

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
24 April 2007
Source: Department of Trade and Industry (http://www.dti.gov.za/)