Your Excellency, President Armando Guebuza
Honourable Ministers here present
Members of the media
Good afternoon
Let me start by extending once again a very warm welcome to my dear brother, President Guebuza and his delegation. As South Africans, we feel highly honoured by your visit, Mr President. We have since last year been looking forward to this important visit whose main objective was to further consolidate our dynamic bilateral cooperation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have just concluded our deliberations. We have noted with great satisfaction the good relations that so happily exist between our sister countries. Of course, these good relations have a history of their own. These are relations that were cemented during the struggles against colonialism and apartheid. There is therefore a very strong bond that binds us together, a bond that will always keep us together in our shared destiny.
This morning, we had fruitful discussions covering a wide range of areas in our bilateral cooperation and partnership. We have noted progress in a number of these areas under which we cooperate. We are excited with the continuing cross-border investments as evidenced by an increasing number of the South African private companies investing in the economy of Mozambique. Of importance is our resolve to continue to work together in the five identified Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs). These are the successful Maputo Corridor; the Beira SDI; the Limpopo Valley SDI; the Zambezi Valley SDI as well as the Nacala Development Corridor.
We have agreed to continue to work together in the energy sector, an important sector in our bilateral cooperation which includes both electricity and gas projects. We have noted good cooperation in the trilateral Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park which involves Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. We however noted with great concern the reported incidences of rhino poaching in the Park. In this connection, we have agreed on the need to elevate the rhino poaching to SADC for the development of and implementation of a regional response strategy. At a bilateral level however, we have decided to take certain measures including the training of rangers as well as involvement of Interpol and regional security clusters.
We have also noted the progress that is being made in the construction of the One Stop Border Post at Ressano Garcia/Lebombo border. This facility will help to ease the movement of goods and services between our two countries. Due to financial constraints, we will have no choice but to continue to construct the One Stop Border Post in an incremental basis. We also need to jointly mobilise financial resources with a view to finalising this important project.
We have also agreed to do everything possible to ensure that our economic cooperation continues to take centre stage in bilateral partnership, conscious of the urgent need to maximise our natural resources to the full benefit of our peoples. In this regard, promising projects like the Matola Pharaborwa Iron and Steel Project need to be expedited.
We have also decided to pay particular attention to the important issue of food security. In this regard, we have directed our Ministers of agriculture to ensure full implementation of the identified projects flowing from the Bilateral Agreement on Agriculture.
We have further agreed to continue to cooperate in the important areas of transport and communications, water and many other areas of mutual interest.
Conscious of our shared history and desiring to further consolidate our bilateral relations, we have today reached a milestone in South Africa/Mozambique bilateral relations by deciding to elevate the current Heads of State Economic Bilateral Forum to a fully fledged Bi-National Commission (BNC). The BNC will not only focus on economic issues as it currently the case but will also cover all other areas including social and security issues.
In this regard, we have directed the Ministers of International Relations and Cooperation/Foreign Affairs to work towards finalising negotiations on the Agreement establishing the BNC.
Our discussions also gave us the opportunity to look beyond the bilateral relations and reflected broadly on the latest global developments. We agreed that it is critically important that we continue to consult each other as partners, neighbours and friends.
In concluding let me say that we are indeed pleased that President Guebuza was able to pay us a visit in the context of our Heads of State Economic Bilateral Forum. We are very pleased with the outcomes of our discussions which confirm that we have this possibility as the two countries to build a strong relationship that will be mutually beneficial to our people.
I thank you.
Source: The Presidency
