discussions
16 September 2007
Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad will on Monday, 17 September 2007, host
his Italian counterpart Deputy Minister Patrizia Sentinelli at the Union
Buildings in Pretoria.
Deputy Minister Pahad will host his counterpart within the context of South
Africa's priority to consolidate bilateral political, economic and trade
relations as well as multilateral relations with Italy. In this regard, Italy
is a member of both the Group of 8 (G8) and European Union and non-permanent
member of the United Nations Security Council.
The visit by Deputy Minister Sentinelli also follows the highly successful
visit of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Massimo
D'Alema and a large government and business delegation to South Africa in July
2007.
Issues on the agenda of discussions between Deputy Ministers Pahad and
Sentinelli are expected to include, among others:
* the status of bilateral political, economic and trade relations between
both countries
* possible bilateral co-operation between Italy and South Africa in the field
of skills development within the framework of Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills
Acquisition (Jipsa)
* United Nations Security Council issues with a focus on Kosovo, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran, Western Sahara, the Middle East Peace Process, within the framework
of South Africa and Italy's current positions as non-permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council and in line with the forthcoming United Nations
General Assembly meeting in December. It is intended that both Heads of
Government and State and Ministers of Foreign Affairs will attend this
session
* crises and post-conflict situations in Africa including the Horn of Africa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Darfur, Somalia, Comoros
* United Nations - African Union relations including collaboration in
peacekeeping with regional organisations
* preparations towards the European Union - Africa Summit in Lisbon, December
2007.
Bilateral Economic Relations
Despite the increase in two-way trade between South Africa and Italy over
the past few years, that reached R23 billion in 2006 - opportunities to
increase trade and investment relations are plentiful.
Italy ranks amongst South Africa's top ten trading partners. South African
exports to Italy are dominated by precious and non-ferrous metals, basic iron
and steel and ferro-alloys, coal and quarried stone/granite.
Some value added South Africa products are increasingly penetrating the
Italian market, including processed and preserved fish and fish products;
manufacture of other general purpose machinery; production, processing and
preserving of meat and meat products; preparation and spinning of textile
fibres; fruit and vegetable crops; market gardening; horticulture; tanning and
dressing of leather; pulp, paper and paperboard; basic chemicals.
South African imports from Italy consist mainly of machine tools, auto
vehicles and components thereof, industrial machinery, jewellery and
telecommunications equipment.
Italy also has a firm understanding of the needs of the developing world,
and therefore has been able to advocate for these through its position in the
G8.
South African business stands to learn many lessons from Italy, especially
in the context of Italy's vibrant, job-creating small, medium and micro
enterprises (SMMEs) sector. There are a number of sectors where collaboration
is feasible, such as the textile industry and especially in clothing design. In
South Africa we have what is called a second economy. This economy refers to
those people of the population that have been unable to participate in the
formal economy, in other words, they are marginalised from the mainstream
economy. These are the people that SMME interventions are targeted at.
Furthermore, in the jewellery sector; Italy is also renowned for its design
there and South Africa is a pole player in the raw materials of this industry.
The number of joint ventures between companies from both our two countries,
particularly in our mining sector, is encouragingly rising.
South Africa provides a friendly environment for doing business and is
ranked 28 in the World Bank Investment Climate Survey. The sound macro-economic
management frameworks put in place since 1994 have lead to a steady economic
growth. For the past 13 years, our economy has been experiencing a positive
growth, as opposed to the 20 years before 1994. In this regard, we can to
benefit from increased Italian investment.
For the past three years, we have been registering an annual growth rate of
five percent and creating 500 000 jobs per annum. Government is confident that
we will be able to achieve our targeted annual growth rate of at least six
percent as of 2008.
Media programme for visit to South Africa by Italian Deputy Minister
Patrizia Sentinelli:
Monday, 17 September 2007
11h30: Arrival of media ahead of photo opportunity on commencement of
discussions between Deputy Minister Pahad and Deputy Minister Sentinelli
Venue: East Wing, Union Buildings, Pretoria
12h00: Commencement of discussions between Deputy Ministers Pahad and
Sentinelli
Photo opportunity
12h30: Arrival of media ahead of joint press conference between Deputy Minister
Pahad and Sentinelli
Venue: First Floor, East Wing, Union Buildings, Pretoria
13h00: Joint press conference
Please present press press cards, parking is on Government Avenue.
Contact:
Manusha Pillai
Cell: 082 389 3587
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
16 September 2007
