Programme Director,
Dignitaries Present,
Members of the media,
All protocol observed.
On behalf of the province of KwaZulu-Natal and the people of this province, we want to express our profound delight for being part of this dinner which marks the end of this year’s instalment of East3route expedition.
Programme Director we are sure that we are speaking on behalf of all us who have been part of this expedition that this year’s edition of the East3route was not only qualitatively bigger and better but had been a resounding success, far beyond the veritable scope of our combined imagination.
Apart from the thrill and the exhilaration of travelling across the borders of our respective regions, sampling what each destination has to offer in terms of its smorgasbord of its tourism products and savouring the arresting scenic beauty of it all, we have no doubt that the third East3route installment has made history in many respects.
The fact that we have been joined by the Seychelles this year is not only a practical expression of the growth of this expedition, but is an omen for the confluence of possibilities that can be achieved if we harness this expedition for the benefit of all our people.
Critically, this year’s expedition was also a success in many ways, not least because we have been able to mobilize the private sector to ensure that in every leg of the expedition we left tangible fruits of this cooperation in the form of computers, a mobile library, a science kit and bicycles.
In this regard, we wish to express our profound gratitude to Nestle South Africa, which sponsored us with computers, the South African Breweries, the Department of Transport which provided us with bicycles. This shows that we can achieve a lot if we work in unison with the private sector. We would like to develop an East 3 Route strategy going forward.
As we draw down the curtain to this year’s instalment, we do so with more than a sense of pride and accomplishment, for we have this year, practically, shown what we can achieve if we accelerate our efforts at regional integration and forging a common destiny for our people beyond our borders.
Programme Director, when the heads of the delegations of KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, and Mozambique met in 2011 on the sidelines of Tourism Indaba to decide how to give effect to the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, we were inspired by one idea only that: “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
Indeed, we knew that while His Excellency former president Nelson Mandela, and former president of Mozambique His Excellency Joachim Chisano and His Majesty, King Mswati the 111 had marshalled us into the direction of where we needed to go in order to forge regional integration, ours was to take this to the next level.
I am rightly indebted to my former colleagues in Swaziland and Mozambique for being receptive to the idea of the East 3 Route. But it would be remiss of us not to point out what we think were the highlights of this year’s expedition. In this regard, we believe that all of us deserve a pat on the back for this year’s instalment of the East3route investment seminar, which was not only well organised but dealt with tangible issues of what we need to do to remove barriers that impede cross border business relations.
The fact that we had businesses which shared testimonials about what are the opportunities and challenges gave all of us a valuable insight into the vistas of opportunities that we need to harness in order to map a collective future for our people.
Coupled with this, all the countries have committed themselves to rolling out infrastructural development along the East3route, including the fact the Mozambican government has pledged that by 2017 the road between Ponto ‘Doro and Farazela border on the KwaZulu-Natal side will be finished. We also believe that the East3route economic report was a cherry on top as it will give investors a detailed and comprehensive idea of what they need to do if they want to invest in this region.
But while this year’s edition has been a success by all account, we cannot afford to bask in the sun of our accomplishment. Going forward, we will develop the East3 Route investment map. The said map must have all projects that are proposed under the East3 Route. This investment map should be ready for launching in May next year.
As many of you would recall, when the East3route was rolled out we made a commitment as the province of KwaZulu-Natal that we will shoulder the lion’s share of the costs of organizing the expedition for three years. We wish to announce that in order to keep the wheels of the East3route in motion and to ensure that there is seamless transition as the province of KwaZulu-Natal we will next year make available 50% of the costs of putting together this expedition.
Beyond this, we would like to move to a situation where all the partners are able to factor the East3route into their budgetary plans and be able to carry the costs of their legs of the expeditions. However, these and other matters will be discussed in detail in the meeting of the principals of the East3route that will be convened within the next three months.
As stated earlier, we believe that the East3route investment seminar was one of the highlights of this year’s expedition. However, going forward, we believe that working with the collective members of the East3route family, it is important that we should form an East3route business trade forum that will specifically focus on unlocking trade between businesses from all the East3route collective.
The forum should deal with among other issues, business to business relations, the packaging of investment projects along the route and the pooling of resources for the benefit of all of us. Top on the list of the forum will be developing tourism packages.
Programme Director, we are also excited that the tangible results of the East3route are being felt as we speak, before we have even concluded this year’s edition officially. In this regard, we are excited to announce that some of the tour operators who are part of this year’s expedition have informed us that they will be putting together tourism packages of the East3route for their colleagues focusing on different experiences such as heritage, adventure, beach tourism, cruise tourism etc.
As all of us know, Durban is already the hub of cruise tourism in South African with MSC soon to deploy two of their large vessels, MSC Sinfonia and MSC Opera between November 2013 and April 2014.
The cruises will offer on land excursions to Swaziland and within Mozambique. We also understand that with the piracy situation along the Indian Ocean/east coast of Africa coming under control there is a real possibility that we may see for the 2014/15 season a cruise from Durban to Mozambique and Seychelles.
Therefore, Programme Director, it is no longer out of the bounds of possibilities that in the not too distant future the East3route expedition might be held in Seychelles. We have no doubt that this will be an exciting experience. We also want to announce that the final report that was tabled in Swaziland will now include the Seychelles.
We will also be amending the East 3 Route brand such that it includes the Seychelles. We have no doubt in our minds that those who have been wondering that why did we include Seychelles as part of our family will begin to see a clearer picture now. In this regard, we have mandated the CEO of our tourism agency, KwaZulu-Natal Tourism, Mr Ndabo Khoza to begin exploratory talks with MSC.
We are also equally excited that Air Seychelles is increasing the frequency of flights between South Africa and Seychelles to four times a week, thus increasing the capacity to move tourists between our East3route region.
In conclusion, we want to express our gratitude to the members of trade who have taken time off from their businesses to be part of this expedition. We also want to thank business people who travelled all the way to the Kingdom of Swaziland to attend the investment seminar.
We also want to thank our sponsors, such as Nestle, SAB, and the Department of Transport etc. In order to ensure that the private sector continue to support this noble cause, we want the technical committee of the East3route organizing team to form a sponsorship sub-committee that will look at a targeted approach in order to rally the private sector to support this cause.
We want, in particular, to target companies that have a cross border presence within the East3route family. We also want to thank all the delegates and the leaders of the delegates for participating in this year’s expedition. Such is the success of this year’s expedition that the spirits remained high even when the bodies could not take it anymore.
Programme Director, during the last year’s investment seminar we agreed that as part of the resolution we would this year, unveil legacy projects that will be built along the East3route. It is my pleasure to unveil the artist’s impression of these projects. We have set aside a total of R9-million to fund these community tourism projects.
Additionally, we intend approaching private sector companies to partner with us. We intend to leverage on the R9-million investment to be beyond R60-million in 5-years’ time.
I thank you!
