Lord Mayor of the London Corporation and the lady mayoress
Your royal highnesses,
My lords, aldermen, sheriffs
Ministers
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for the warm words of welcome and for your generous hospitality. For many years, the City of London provided a home away from home for many South African exiles. Even now, thousands of South Africans are living and working in London. We therefore feel a special connection to this city.
This connection is derived from the strong relations between the United Kingdom and South Africa. These are relations founded upon a long and rich history together. The two countries have strong political and economic ties. But even more significant, are the ties between our two peoples.
These are neither developed through bilateral agreements nor official delegations. They are forged over decades of interaction. They are forged through study, culture, friendship, marriage, sport and food. Many stretch back into the distant past. Some are very new. Together they paint a picture of a relationship between two nations that is constantly evolving.
Nowhere is the potential of this relationship more pronounced than in the economy. While it predates South Africa’s industrialisation, our economic ties have flourished in the 16 years since the dawn of our democracy. The volume of trade and investment has increased significantly.
In just the past five years, companies in the United Kingdom have made significant investments in sectors as diverse as banking, real estate, mining, tourism and food. In addition, six hundred South African companies have a presence in the United Kingdom. And while trade has grown much in recent years, it is our firm belief that the greatest opportunities for trade and investment are yet to come. That is the message we are bringing to England on this visit.
We must take our economic, political, social and cultural ties beyond the current levels. The more than 200 strong business delegation that is accompanying my wife and I on this visit, indicates the high level of interest in our country. We can still go further indeed in the South Africa and United Kingdom trade relations.
Lord Mayor,
After the first recession of the democratic era, our economy is firmly on the path of recovery and the signs are promising. We are assisted by the fact that as we pursued measures to respond to the immediate impact of the global crisis, we remained focused on the long-term growth and sustainability of our economy.
We continued, for example, with a massive public infrastructure investment programme. This helped to sustain productive activity during the recession. More importantly, it will assist our recovery and lay the basis for faster, sustained growth into the future. If you visited South Africa now, you will realise that the country has become a huge construction and development site! We are busy building roads, bridges and power stations.
Over the next three years, the public sector aims to spend R846 billion on its infrastructure programme. Extensive planning and consultation is in progress on infrastructure programmes for the next 10 to 20 years, in recognition of our long-term development challenges.
In upgrading our transport, logistics, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, we are reducing the cost of doing business in South Africa, and improving the prospects for investors. We are saying South Africa is open for business in a big way! We are investing in our people too, especially education, our number one priority. We have recognised that without the skills needed to run a modern economy, our efforts at growth and development will be continually constrained.
We seek collaboration with the United Kingdom in skills development, particularly in the creation of centres of excellence, revitalising our technical training colleges as well as workplace training programmes to encourage improvement in competitiveness and productivity of our firms.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Other than education and promoting job creation, we are also investing in the improvement of the lives of our people in housing, health, rural development, policing, and social security. You would have heard of our intensive focus on the fight against crime. Our highly visible and vigorous crime fighting campaign is yielding results. The message we are sending out at home is clear, there is zero tolerance for crime in our administration.
We will work closely with citizens to make it a campaign undertaken by the whole nation, to promote safety and security for all. We are also improving the functioning of our criminal justice system, so that we make an even better impact in creating safer communities. We are definitely a country at work for a better life, working faster and harder to achieve our goals. For this reason, we declared 2010 a year of action and visible outcomes, and want to see visible results in everything we do.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The investment we are making in our economy and our people contributes to conditions for greater private investment, increased trade and faster growth. We are aware that the United Kingdom is host to the bulk of mining investment companies in South Africa, and is also home to fund managers and mining analysts. We believe that foreign direct investment finds a comfortable home in South Africa given our stability and predictability with regards to policy.
The policies we are implementing now were adopted in 2007, at the ruling party’s national conference after a long policy making process. This time honoured tradition continues to serve us well.
South Africa therefore offers policy stability and predictability at all times. I would therefore like to allay the concerns of those who may be worried about the reports and debates, especially by the youth of the ruling party, on the nationalisation of mines. There is no law that authorises the South African government to nationalise mines or mineral resources. The nationalisation of mines is not government policy at all.
Nothing has changed in this regard.
Ladies and gentlemen, based on our policies, we will continue to enhance our efforts to deepen growth and increase decent work. We will continue our work to tackle poverty and underdevelopment. If there is one thing that our various stays in London have taught us is that the world is becoming increasingly interdependent. We must accept that our individual fortunes cannot be separated from our collective fortunes. That is why South Africa strives to play a constructive role in international forums and in the advancement of global concerns.
In this, we have forged with the United Kingdom common perspectives on a number of issues. We see the United Kingdom as a valuable partner in our efforts to build a more stable, peaceful and equitable world. We are pleased with the engagements we have had in confronting common challenges. These include the global financial crisis, the reform of multilateral institutions, climate change, international trade, and the global campaign to achieve access to education for all.
We particularly welcome the role that the United Kingdom has played as a champion of Africa. We welcome the role of the United Kingdom government, in increasing the proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP) that goes in development assistance to the continent.
For its part, South Africa has dedicated much time, energy and resources to the resolution of conflict in Africa, to development, to economic integration and to the promotion of democracy and good governance. There is much on which we can cooperate. And there is much that we can learn from each other’s experiences. We look forward to cooperation even further in the G20, the Commonwealth and other critical forums.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Through your generosity and hospitality, you have made us feel very much at home. In just under 100 days, South Africa will host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We look forward to seeing many of you there. You will be able to witness our national team Bafana-Bafana do wonders on the soccer pitch! We have a few surprises up our sleeves. We look forward to making your stay as comfortable, pleasant and enjoyable as ours has been here. And, your worship the lord mayor, I do hope that when next I return to England, I shall be able to watch Liverpool in action!
Ladies and gentlemen, may I request you to rise and join me in a toast to the Lord Mayor of the City of London Corporation.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
4 March 2010
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/)
