KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize has expressed his appreciation to Ms Maria Elias Jonas and her delegation from Mozambique for visiting KwaZulu-Natal. "The visit resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the KZN and Maputo.
The MoU focuses on cooperation on Tourism, Economic Development and Trade Investment Promotion, Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, Transport, Communication and Logistics, Arts and culture, Education, Safety and Security, Health and sharing of best practice in combating HIV and AIDS, TB management, care support and treatment, malaria control and port health services.
"The signing of this MOU signifies a concrete step in fostering closer cooperation between Maputo and KwaZulu-Natal." "This cooperation reaffirms our commitment to speeding up trade integration the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region."
"Our province is home to more than 10 million people and is located in the eastern seaboard of our country, sharing border with three SADC countries, namely Mozambique, Botswana and Swaziland."
"Our province, boasting the ports of Durban and Richards Bay; a multimodal transport system in form of the Dube Trade Port, the King Shaka International Airport and world-class road infrastructure, is the undisputable gateway to the rest of the SADC Region; the African continent and the world."
"Taking into account the mooted SADC economic integration provisionally scheduled for year 2015, our province does not only give an investor access to a market of 50 million people but, in the near future, will give access to the more than 250 million market that makes up the SADC region."
"As we speak, SADC, which we are part of, working together with other African regional bodies including the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community and comprising 26 countries have agreed to form Africa’s biggest free trade bloc which will, in turn, create a single continent-wide market estimated to be worth US $1 trillion by 2013."
"These 26 countries have a combined population of 590 million and an aggregate gross domestic product of US $860 billion. Therefore, investing in KwaZulu-Natal with its undisputable status as the continent’s logistics hub, gives the investor access to a market of about 600 million people, in so far as the free-trade agreement is concerned."
For more information contact:
Regi Khumalo
Media Liaison Desk for Dr Zweli Mkhize
Cell: 079 751 6108
E-mail: regi.khumalo@yahoo.com
Ndabezinhle Sibiya
Premier’s Spokesperson
Cell: 082 375 4742
E-mail: sibiyand@premier.kzntl.gov.za
