The Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize, representing the provincial government, has had a series of groundbreaking meetings with key stakeholders both in government and in the private sector in Queensland, Australia today, 24 March 2010.
The premier is leading a delegation consisting of MEC for Economic Development, Mr Mike Mabuyakhulu and MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development Ms Lydia Johnson.
Meeting with Mr Ian Fletcher Director-General of Queensland’s Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation and his senior officials; the following were agreed to:
* The two regions will twin up and develop a marketing packages aimed at marketing the two regions
* KwaZulu-Natal will be marketed in Australia as the home for Australians who want to visit the province for business and leisure purposes especially during the 2010 FIFA World Cup
* Similarly Queensland will be marketed to KwaZulu-Natal as a preferred destination for the people of KwaZulu-Natal who want to visit Australia for business and leisure
* Both governments will facilitate contacts between well established and emerging businesses owners in both countries to facilitate trade
* Queensland and KwaZulu-Natal will work collectively to speed up socio-economic development in both regions
* There are a lot of similarities between the two regions and both governments have agreed that there are endless opportunities for collaboration in areas such as agriculture, tourism and skills development.
South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal government is committed to ensuring peace, stability and socio-economic development in the whole Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Over the past 15 years the South Africa government has played a crucial role to ensure that there is development in neighbouring countries. KwaZulu-Natal is also playing its part to ensure that developments takes place and that the majority of disadvantaged communities benefit.
In this regard, Queensland government has agreed to collaborate with the provincial government on areas such as the provision of decent education, water and sanitation and more importantly to be a partner to ensure local economic development.
KwaZulu-Natal and Queensland agreed to an urgent need for collaboration to ensure that the majority of communities not only in KwaZulu-Natal but in the whole SADC region benefits from trade and political relations between the two provinces.
Other meetings that have been attended by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government delegation include the following:
Executive management of Southbank Institute of Technology (SBIT): SBIT has agreed to partner with the KwaZulu-Natal government, in particular, to twin up with KwaZulu-Natal based institutions to improve curriculum and share experiences and expertise in areas such information, communication and technology training.
SBIT was established in 1863 and is Queensland’s largest government owned training provider. The institute has over 29 000 students enrolled in more than 260 programs. SBIT provides innovative and high quality vocational training and education both domestically and through international partners. SBIT currently has 21 students enrolled from South Africa for the 2009 to 2010 financial year.
Meeting with senior government officials from the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation: This meeting noted weather similarities between the two provinces and therefore agreed to explore opportunities in areas such as agriculture.
KwaZulu-Natal has embarked on a programme to stimulate agriculture and to ensure that this sector of the economy contributes significantly to the province’s gross domestic product (GDP). Agriculture by its nature is labour intensive and has created job opportunities for thousands of people in Queensland throughout the value chain.
Agriculture comprises 28 percent of the state’s economy in Queensland and key agricultural industries include: horticulture and seafood. Rigorous attention to food safety standards and sustainable farming practices have enabled Queensland to ensure food security and to export food to other countries effectively creating job opportunities for many people in the region.
Given the fact that it is estimated that 35 percent of the population of KwaZulu-Natal is food insecure, KwaZulu-Natal is looking at strategies to ensure food security.
Also, the long-term plan for the provincial government is to ensure that the concept of one village, one product is realised. This concept focuses on ensuring that communities are empowered to produce their own food products which will be marketed domestically and internationally to other countries through the newly constructed Dube Trade Port. This facility will comprise of a state of the art agro processing facility. Already there are countries especially in the Gulf region who have expressed an interest to buy food products from KwaZulu-Natal.
In this regard, the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation has agreed to partner with the KwaZulu-Natal government to facilitate the transfer of skills to KwaZulu-Natal based small scale and well established farmers.
Both provinces have agreed to encourage Queensland’s based companies that are involved in agriculture to set up their offices in KwaZulu-Natal to ensure that there is sustainability in process of the transfer of skills from both provinces. KwaZulu-Natal based emerging farmers will also have the opportunity to have access to the Queensland’s market and to also visit this region to acquire farming skills.
KwaZulu-Natal delegation met with officials from Queensland Department of Community Safety. KwaZulu-Natal learned more about Queensland disaster management plan and this meeting took place few days after Queensland’s had been hit by a cyclone. Amazingly, the Queensland’s disaster management system kicked in preventing the loss of life. Queensland’s has an effective early warning system which should be replicated in KwaZulu-Natal.
The gains that have made by the KwaZulu-Natal government in the quest to reconstruct and develop the province are threatened by recurring veld-fires, storms and floods. The disastrous impact includes the destruction of road infrastructure, schools, homes, small businesses and agricultural production capacity.
To date, the people of KwaZulu-Natal are still picking up the pieces and rebuilding their lives following devastating floods and storms that wrecked havoc this year. The provincial government has estimated the cost to be in excess of millions of rands.
This meeting agreed to amongst other things:
* KwaZulu-Natal will learn more about Queensland’s district management systems which has proved very effective in dealing with disasters at local levels
* KwaZulu-Natal to learn more about early warning systems which are effective
* Queensland will assist KwaZulu-Natal in the training of fire fighters to detect veld fires and to put up veld-fires as well
* KwaZulu-Natal and Queensland’s agreed to share resources in dealing with disasters
* One critical disaster is the issue of oil spills. Queensland has agreed to transfer expertise to KwaZulu-Natal in order to put in place a disaster management plan to deal with oil spills especially along the coasts, and in the Durban and Richards Bay ports. Queensland’s has strong leadership capable of ensuring maritime safety.
The signing of the Cooperation agreement between the two provinces will take place tomorrow, 25 March 2010 at the Queensland Legislative Assembly. This ceremony will be attended by Her Excellency Penelope Wensley, Governor of Queensland, Honourable Paul Lucas, Deputy Premier of Queensland and Minister of Health and South Africa delegation led by the premier.
The agreement will ensure the promotion of development and cooperation and the exchange of knowledge, skills and expertise.
Please note interviews with the Premier just after 11h00 South African time and 18h00
Enquires:
Ndabezinhle Sibiya
Cell: 082 375 4742
E-mail: ndabezinhlesibiya@yahoo.com or sibiyand@premier.kzntl.gov.za
Regi Khumalo
Cell: 079 751 6108
Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
24 March 2010
