Programme director
The Mayor of eThekwini municipality, Councillor Obed Mlaba
The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr ZL Mkhize
The Chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Commission, Ms Nomagugu Simelane
The Executive Deputy President of Development Bank of Southern Africa, Mr Admassu Yilma Tadesse
Representatives of youth from across the Southern African Development Community region
Ladies and gentlemen
We wish to express our sincere delight for being part of this historic occasion where young people from across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are meeting to deliberate on the role that young people can play in building a region characterised by peace and prosperity and a continent that can hold its own in the ever changing global economic terrain.
Programme director we believe that it is prosper that we should start by thanking all the stakeholders who have made this day possible by bringing young people from across the SADC region together under one roof to map out their contribution towards creating an integrated region and a continent that all of us can be proud of. The reality that we all have to own up to is that while a lot of efforts have been made to create synergies and cooperation between all the countries in the SADC region at both political and economic levels, there is still a lot that we can do to build people to people relations between civil society, especially young formations.
Indeed we are reminded of the words of the first president of a democratic South Africa and celebrated campaigner for human rights, equality and development, President Nelson Mandela, who presented his vision for Africa as follows:
“I dream of the realisation of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses”.
It is because of the dream of a unified, prosperous and progressive Africa shared by Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and Eduardo Mondhlane and Oliver Tambo that we believe today’s gathering is historic and groundbreaking. It is not everyday that young people from across countries in the southern region of our continent meet to share ideas on what can be done to realise the dream of our leaders and the people of Africa as a whole.
The fate and future of South Africa are inextricably linked with those of its neighbours. Even during the darkest days of colonial rule and apartheid repression, our sister countries from the SADC region played a critical role towards helping our country from the yoke of political subjugation. In fact, we can say without any fear of contradiction that South Africa would not be a free country today if it was not for the contribution and the sacrifices that were made by our sister countries in the SADC region. For this, we are eternally grateful and we hope to build on this existing relationship, forged in the crucible of the struggle, to turn around the fortunes of our continent and indeed our region.
Programme director, we meet today against the backdrop of the biggest economic storm which has devastated many economies in the world. While signs have emerged that many countries are now bottoming out, the reality is that it is developing countries which have been hit hardest by the economic meltdown. This is captured in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) publication titled Regional
Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa–Weathering the Storm published in October this year which said:
“As the global financial crisis has morphed into the most severe global downturn since at least the 1930s, its negative effects on sub-Saharan Africa have also risen. Through most of 2008, the crisis mainly hit countries with stronger financial linkages to international capital markets. As portfolio outflows spiked and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa slowed to a trickle, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, and other countries saw their exchange rates sharply weaken and interest rates surge. But as the global economy plunged into recession, falling export demand and declining commodity prices spread the impact of the crisis to far more sub-Saharan African countries, suppressing economic activity and causing fiscal and external balances to deteriorate significantly”.
The publication further states that the worst affected countries within the region are oil exporters. The next hardest hit countries are the so-called middle-income countries, within which South Africa falls. The fact of the matter programme director is that many of developing countries depend on the foreign direct investment and export of raw material for their economies. Inevitably, when the global demand plummets, exports and associate foreign direct investment falls significantly. In a global environment where investors are risk averse, developing countries, including those in the SADC region, suffer the most.
We believe that as we meet today against the backdrop of the world that is writing a new economic script our young people who are part of this gathering need to express them on what they think the global economic order should be like post the economic depression. Because young people are the future, the reality is that whatever we do today, our failures and our successes will be inherited by you.
As such one of the biggest debates that are raging in many countries is how much countries should spend in order to shore up their economies from the rut of recession. As all of us know, in times of depressed economies it is state expenditure that helps the economies to recover. Inevitably, this widens the deficit and countries are forced to borrow in order to finance other needs of the country. Now, as all of us know, there is a school of thought which contends that countries should not borrow more they can afford so as to saddle future generations with debt. This is a debate that we think as young people your voice should be heard.
Given the rapid pace of economic liberalisation and the growing and multifaceted challenges and opportunities brought globalisation, its has become important for Africa, especially its young people to work together for mutual benefit to promote social and economic development, alleviate poverty and develop a more competitive private sector. The globalisation of markets and finance advances in computing, information processing and telecommunications have created an increasingly interdependent world, expanding the volume of business and heightening international competition.
Such growing interdependence among countries of the world and changing geopolitical situation has made it vitally necessary for these countries to cooperate. Unfortunately, Africa entered the 1990s facing the daunting task of recouping the losses of the past decade and returning to the path of sustained social and economic development. Though the region remains far behind other regions in the level and growth rate of major economic and social indicators, a great deal of work has been done to move out of this problem.
Despite efforts at adjustment and democratisation by governments in Africa, the continent remains disconnected from global political, commercial and technological advances and decision making. Africa is struggling to take advantage of and participate in the globalised, international financial system, as its own domestic financial system is relatively underdeveloped.
Strategic partnerships with other countries in our league have become a strategic imperative. We have much to gain from the development of a deeper, long-term and stable partnership with Asia. We can learn from Asia in a number of areas, most importantly the Asian miracle. Indeed the new international system of the post-Cold War era has visibly failed to evolve a collective system for dealing equitably with increasing globalisation and integration.
Though Africa will have to look more to internal sources of growth and non-traditional sources of capital and technology to finance its development, the opportunity exist to understand best practice from our friends in Asia. Given the high and sustained growth of output achieved by East, South and South East
Asia, cooperation between Asia and Africa contains tremendous opportunities. The partnership between Asia and Africa will definitely give impetus to these opportunities.
In an effort to avoid the difficulties experienced by the series of initiatives on African development that took place in the 80s, our efforts should be to put in place mechanisms that would facilitate the implementation of the millennium Development Goals, some of which are enshrined in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) programme.
In Africa, we are motivated to cooperate with Asia by our desire to meet the requirements of recovery and economic transformation. Initially, the big question in our mind was the question “what would motivate Asia to cooperate with Africa?” We have now found the answer to this question. We are aware that for Asia too, economic and commercial interests are the driving force. Specifically, these interests are informed by such factors as: the long standing Asian solidarity with Africa (even during dark days of colonialism and apartheid), the need to expand markets, Africa’s rich natural resources, improving access to raw material resources.
In addition, the lingering effects of the Asian financial crisis since 1997, the persistent debt crisis of the two continents, and the new trend of decreasing investments, together with the coming new trade order imposed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have pointed to the urgent need for institutional cooperation and stronger economic integration that transcend the geographical boundaries between Asia and Africa.
These developments would have tremendous impact on Asian and African economies.
For instance, our analysis proves that, at present, Asian investment is mostly in North America and Europe, as the continent aims to capture and maintain the lucrative market in these regions. Whether or not Africa will be in a competitive position with regard to other regions in attracting Asian funds will depend on the capacity and commitment of African countries to create an enabling environment for foreign investment, developing the private sector, removing investment constraints, all of which are developmental outcomes envisaged from NEPAD.
South to south cooperation and, in particular, partnership between Africa and Asia is a necessity for economic growth and development. In our view, the basis for expanding development cooperation between Africa and Asia should, however, be that, the needs and capacities of both regions must be matched in a mutually beneficial manner. Asia should benefit from the cooperation as much as Africa, although the gains need not have equal monetary value. Given the different stages of technological development that countries in the two regions have reached, interests could be diverse.
For Asia, it could be the opening of markets in Africa and disposal of surplus funds in investments with a high rate of return. On the other hand, Africa might be interested in the transfer of technology and know how. Therefore, the scope of development cooperation should be sufficiently broad to enable each participant to maximise benefits. In addition, Asia to Africa development cooperation should not be modelled to that of north to south type of cooperation, or a donor and recipient relationship.
It is important not to give the impression to African countries that there is a changing of the guard from Europe to Asia. Cooperation needs to be pursued based on equality and mutual respect, guided by the desire to learn from each other. It should also promote a two way flow of experience.
Coming closer to home, we must understand that, as the youth, we are responsible for the growth and advancement of the SADC region. The youth needs to understand that its primary role in the context of our continent in general and our region in particular, is to build on the foundation laid be our leaders who fought and defeated colonialism. Now that colonialism lives no more, we must build Africa into a resilient economy that it should be. Our region must be a centre of innovation and creativity. For too long we have failed to exploit the comparative advantages that we possess; the mineral wealth, our strategic infrastructure including ports and harbours, our strategic location as well as the human potential that exists to put our region at the pinnacle of success.
Mediocrity has no place in our region, if we aim to be competitive. It is you, the youth, who must lead the drive for Africa’s renewal and rebirth. We must get involved in determining our destiny. The youth must pronounce itself on HIV and AIDS. It is a sad fact that the majority of people who contract HIV and later develop AIDS are young people. We must be at the forefront of the fight to annihilate this pandemic. In this regard, the action of the youth will determine whether our youth has a future or does not.
With slavery now a distant memory, it is unsettling that, in our continent, incidents of human trafficking are still rife. Again it is the youth, in particular girl children who are victims of this dastardly practice. We must also accept that it is other young people who are also involved in human trafficking rings. The SADC youth must be visible and vociferous in campaigns to fight this scourge.
As you know, South Africa will, on behalf of our continent, be hosting the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. We invite you as young people of our region, not to wait for an invitation to exploit opportunities that come with hosting this spectacle, but apply innovation and creativity to use the world cup as a springboard for growth and development.
More often than not, like-minded entities and people, meet with the noble intention of a achieving a shared objective. Summits, conferences and workshops are held wherein pronouncements are made and resolutions are adopted. However, the inability to craft a concrete, applicable programme of action often undermines the efforts of participants in such gatherings.
The biggest task, therefore, for this forum is to emerge with a practicable programme of action whose implementation will be monitored closely by a team of dedicated people who will report continuously on progress. It is not too ambitious for this team to report to SADC on the implantation of its programme, highlighting both successes and identifying challenges. There is just too much at stake for this forum to become yet another feel good, talk shop that achieves nothing. There is less time for talk and more time for implementation.
Ladies and gentleman, we wish you well during your deliberations and do not doubt that this forum will be remembered as a turning point in the history of development in Africa, particularly in the SADC region. Without further ado, allow me to introduce to you the Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, an activist for development and a campaigner for peace and stability, the Honourable Dr ZL Mkhize.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
27 November 2009
Source: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government (http://www.kznded.gov.za/)
