Master of Ceremonies
Consul General of India, His Excellency Anil K Sharan and your lovely wife eThekwini Mayor, Councillor James Nxumalo
Members of parliament and mayors present Other important guests
Representatives from various communities and the religious fraternity
Honoured guests
Good evening
Allow me to express our warmest welcome to everyone present here this evening on behalf of the provincial government and the ruling party, the African National Congress.
First and foremost, I would like to apologise on behalf of the Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize who is out of the province on official business.
I want to express my appreciation to the Consul General of India, His Excellency Anil K Sharan. Thank you for extending an invitation to the provincial government.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you Anil on behalf of the provincial government for always being available when we need you. We celebrated when you were appointed as Consul General because your sterling accomplishments and distinguished performance on various countries where you were posted.
More importantly, we were pleased when you stated boldly that you saw your new role here in KwaZulu-Natal as one wherein you hoped to work with government and the people of this province in areas such the fighting HIV and AIDS, economic development and the strengthening our education.
We are all optimistic about the future of this province because you have committed yourself to the creation of an environment that enables the provincial government to learn from your country.
As government we have always noted that India has moved from a relatively undeveloped economy just fifty years ago to a position in the top five economies of the world today.
India owes its economic growth and 21st century renaissance to its education system and the number of professionals graduating from Indian institutions every year.
In the 1950‟s and 1960‟s the Indian Government under Prime Minister Nehru, building on the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, invested heavily in education and skills development.
Jawaharlal Nehwru was a passionate advocate of education, especially for India’s children and youth, believing free and universal primary education was essential for India’s progress.
At the tertiary level Nehwru set up Institutes of Technology and higher learning across the country. The result was that when the economy was liberalised in the 1990‟s following India’s balance of payments crisis, there were enough Indian graduates around the world who returned to India to drive the economic boom which followed.
Today India has a huge intellectual capital base to drive its impressive economic growth, currently averaging over 9% per annum.
Consider that India has:
- Over 380 universities and 11, 200 colleges
- 1 500 research institutions
- 800 000 science post graduates
- More than 1 million graduate engineers
- Today India turns out more than 50 000 computer professionals and 360 000 engineering graduates per year.
The provincial government is fully aware of the importance of education and it is for these reasons that we have prioritised education.
KwaZulu-Natal is recorded as one of the provinces that has performed exceptionally well during 2009/10 academic years. The impressive matric results are a clear demonstration of our collective will to accelerate progress towards achieving a rising quality of life for the people of this province.
As a developmental state we have adopted an approach that seeks to mobilise multi-stakeholder participation in order to improve both access and the quality of our education in this province.
This is the surest way that would help this country achieve the Millennium Development Goal of “universal access to education”.
And what is more important for the future than quality education?
Quality education has reshaped life in most countries and made it possible for the millions of people to live a fulfilling life. Education is the engine of the economy. No doubt, without quality education, there can be no socio- economic development in this province.
It is very important to note that education in this province has come a long way in the past few years. Our efforts as government have always been aimed at improving access and quality.
His Excellency and honoured guests,
To us as the provincial government, the India’s Independence Day celebrations is about the strengthening of solidarity amongst the people of this province and the people of Indian origin across the globe.
For many years, Indian expatriates have continuously become facilitators of socio-economic development across the globe. Their contribution towards the development of South Africa over the last 150 years is well documented.
From 1st century AD, Indian traders were trading with Egypt, Persia, the South East Asian countries and the Chinese.
It is not surprising that from the 1st Century AD till 1250 AD, India had the World’s largest GDP. World figures suggest that it was somewhere between 25 to 30 percent of world’s GDP closely followed by China.
During 15th century, India’s GDP was 26 percent of world’s GDP and it was second largest in the world after China’s GDP. Europe had a GDP of 21 percent of the world.
I am highlighting these to contextualise the importance we attach to this Independence Day as government.
Independence Day and other activities that are organised by the Consul General office such as business seminars, India Fairs etc are platforms on which synergies between the economy of this province and economies of India and different countries where Indian expatriates are found can be strengthened.
We must continue to promote partnerships, we must identify opportunities for investments and more importantly we must use such activities to promote the transfer of skills and facilitation of exchange programmes.
We were excited as the province when we were given the opportunity to host the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Africa – Indian Diaspora Meet Conference last year October.
One of the issues that came under discussion was the transfer of skills from India to South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal in particular. The issue of the transfer of skills to Africa is of utmost importance to us.
Opportunities for scholarships are what Africa needs and this evening I want to reiterate that Africa and KwaZulu-Natal in particular is ready to partner with India to facilitate exchange of programmes.
India ranks number one among all countries in respect of both the inflow and outflow of expatriate executives. That’s according to a survey of global firms conducted by leading financial journal 'The Economist'.
The survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) also found that 16 percent of respondents felt there is a likelihood of expatriates going to India, while 21 percent said there is a likelihood of expatriate executives coming from India to other countries.
By and large, India’s expatriates executives become catalysts for the acquisition of knowledge and information as they bring with them new thinking and innovative ideas.
I am saying this because statistics show that India has approximately 484 million skilled people between the age group 18 to 58. I have also been informed that the country has an ambitious plan to reach a target of 780 million skilled people by 2022 in order to achieve the “Skill Capital‟ status.
Clearly, by hosting Indian expatriates Africa has a lot to benefit.
We want to benefit from India’s skilled population because the continent’s underdevelopment has for many years been caused by the haemorrhage of talent.
A skilled workforce is critical not only to the continent’s economic prosperity but to such matters as access to clean water, food security and disease control.
Ladies and gentlemen, I must hasten to point out that Africa is a land of endless opportunities and we are not moving around the world with a begging bowl.
We are accessing opportunities for collaboration and partnerships being guided by a blueprint for Africa’s socio-economic development, New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).
The primary objective of Nepad is to eradicate poverty, halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process, promote the empowerment and economic integration of women and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Therefore, we need to partnerships in order to ensure that Africa benefits from its own natural resources such as oil and precious minerals: gold, diamond, platinum, copper and iron ore.
Most of these resources remain untapped because Africa lacks the capital and technical skills to add value to the primary products they produce and resulting in their export at low prices to be imported back to Africa at unaffordable prices.
Africa’s 52 countries had a GDP of US$1041.2 billion in 2007. Economic and financial reforms undertaken by many African countries in the 1980s and 1990s have fostered higher growth in these countries.
The region’s real GDP grew by 5.7 percent in 2007, compared with an average of 5.5 percent for lower middle income countries. The GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for about 76 percent of the GDP of Africa in 2007.
We have achieved this progress because we are steady opening up borders to ensure regional trade integration. Most African nations are investing more in infrastructure projects to ensure a steady supply of energy, as well as better regional power and transport networks.
It is for these reasons that the provincial government has taken a decision to position KwaZulu-Natal province as a base for foreign companies wishing to penetrate the lucrative African markets.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that the African population is currently around one billion, approximately 14.8% of the total population of the world and that by 2050 this figure will be closer to two billion, almost a quarter of the world's inhabitants.
Honoured guests, last year in March this province hosted the India-South Africa Business Summit.
In this gathering which was attended by leading businessmen from India and KwaZulu-Natal we committed both countries to work together to realise the ambitious target of increasing trade between India, Brazil and South Africa from US$ 7 billion to US$ 15 billion by 2010; and to US$ 25 billion by 2015.
I believe that this conference gave us the opportunity to assess the progress we have made thus far and to recommit ourselves to these targets.
The opening of the new international airport and Trade Port at La Mercy, North of Durban early this year has presented a huge potential for KwaZulu-Natal to increase trade between this province and India.
On the tourism front, the direct flights from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to India will enable us to increase the number of people who visit the two countries.
There were 61 007 visitors from India to South Africa in 2009, spending some R14 800 per trip each, on average. KZN received some 21.5% of that which equated to 13 117 visitors in 2009.
Even though this figure is very disappointing, we are determined as the province to ensure that in the next few years KwaZulu-Natal becomes the top destination for tourists from India.
Spain, for instance recorded a 10 per cent increase in tourism from India in 2007, as compared to the previous year. The country has launched a drive to increase the number of visitors from India to 150,000 in the next few years.
Statistics have revealed that Singapore still retains its position as the number one outbound destination for Indian travellers. The country crossed the 10 million visitor arrival mark in 2007, with 749,000 Indians visiting the destination.
We believe that KwaZulu-Natal has the potential surpass these figures because the people of this province and India are bound together by our heritage and history spanning over many decades. Indians both in this country and in India stood side by side with the people of South Africa during the bitter years of a struggle against common enemies: apartheid, racism and imperialism.
The epic Indian struggle for freedom and your great achievement of overthrowing the yoke of racial oppression and tyranny served as an inspiration to all South Africans. We celebrated with you during the beginning of a new era in Indian history on 15 August 1947.
Equally, India celebrated with us in 1994 when this country gave birth to a new nation founded on the fundamental principles of equal rights for all.
As we are gathered this evening for Independence Day we need to make solemn undertaking to build a society in which all people shall enjoy prosperity. On this day, let’s hold hands and develop our country and our province KwaZulu-Natal.
We are bound to succeed because we have committed and dedicated leadership both in government, private sector and in civil society.
I thank you.
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements
