International Investors Conference
31 October 2007
Ministers
The business community
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and gentleman
The Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, wrote in the late 1890's that
"nothing better forges a bond of love, friendship or respect than a common
hatred towards something". I think the common hatred we all, as government and
business, share in this room is that of poverty and the existence of economic
circumstances which do not allow human beings to reach their full
potential.
So, we are here today because we share a common confidence that Namibia's
future is a prosperous one. Today also represents the culmination of extensive
work towards deepening our co-operation. Most importantly, today we express the
message that we are not competitors for investment but partners. This mutually
beneficial partnership as we have heard is based on strong historical ties and
a common struggle to improve the lives of our peoples. We are also aware that
as important as this milestone is, that the most effective way to grow our
economies is to deepen our co-operation and not competition for investments. We
therefore agreed a few weeks ago that South African and Namibia will co-operate
in a wide range of fields, ranging from energy security to science and
technology and sharing the 2010 Soccer World Cup, benefits.
This is consistent with our efforts since the dawn of democracy in South
Africa as we consistently express our aspiration to contribute positively to
the comprehensive rejuvenation of Africa. Our own domestic demand for economic
growth and poverty reduction notwithstanding, we are acutely aware of the fact
that South Africa's economic and social policies have an impact far beyond our
borders. We are therefore determined to do what we can to share our growth and
to play our part in stimulating economic advances and concomitant social
development across Africa.
It is for this reason that we are continuing to very vigorously pursue the
regional spatial development initiative programme. I believe therefore that it
is important that we reflect briefly on the history of this process, to
illustrate the advances and successes we have achieved
In this regard, the South African government support for the Walvis Bay
Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) was initially pledged in early 2000 after
consultation between the two Heads of State. This pledge came at a time where
already the trans-Africa Coast-to-Coast Initiative that connects the port of
Walvis Bay with that of Maputo via the Gauteng Province in South Africa was
being promoted.
At the same time, the Walvis Bay Corridor, forming part of the
Trans-Kalahari Highway and stretching from the port of Walvis Bay to the Border
Post (Buitepos) with Botswana, was being promoted by the Walvis Bay Corridor
Group â a public private partnership. The main focus of this work was on the
promotion of increased use by transit traffic of the Port of Walvis Bay and the
Trans-Kalahari Highway to South Africa. As we concentrated on these
initiatives, an understandable short-coming in our work was that too little
attention was being devoted to economic activities or new investments in the
Walvis Bay Corridor area.
To address this matter, it was agreed to proceed with the Walvis Bay SDI. So
by mid-2000 a Project Manager was appointed to implement a business plan to
identify, formulate and market a portfolio of multi-sectoral investment
projects along the Trans-Kalahari Highway.
As we collectively deepened our knowledge of the potential economic outcomes
it became clear that the geographic scope of the Walvis Bay SDI should be
widened to include the Trans-Caprivi links to Zambia and the Trans-Kunene links
to Angola. This means that the scope for investment projects has been
broadened, offering greater opportunities for investors.
We have now reached the stage where we are confident that sufficient
progress has been made in relation to infrastructure development and investment
support and that is why the South African Department of Trade and industry has,
through the Regional SDI Programme, provided significant support to this
Conference.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is important to point out that we are also
supporting regional integration, through the mechanism of Corridors for a
number of other reasons. The need to foster and deepen regional integration
through infrastructure development and measures to address supply-side
constraints to enhance productive capacity is very critical and these corridors
are the living reality of integration. It is in essence trans-border and
trans-country. It promotes transport linkages that will become the life-blood
of integration. It means that the fundamental platform for moving our goods and
related services quickly and efficiently across borders will be
established.
This is a vision that has moved beyond plans and commitments and we have
good reasons to believe that the business case for success in Namibia is sound.
Already, the Mozal Aluminium Smelter along the Maputo Development Corridor has
proven to be such a resounding success that it has now gone into phase III of
expansion. It contains elements of PPP's which were anchored on the development
of cross-border infrastructure through the development of the Witbank-Maputo
road and the planned upgrade of the Lebombo-Ressano Garcia border.
Furthermore, the Zambezi Valley SDI in Mozambique has attracted investors to
exploit the coking coal in that area resulting in the Moatize coal project. A
concession was awarded to the Brazilian company CVRD and a further positive
spin-off is the installation of rail infrastructure and the upgrading of the
port in Nacala and Beira.
Of great significance to the development of industrialisation in these
regions is that these projects carry high value in terms of technology transfer
and skills development and the use of local content and the provision of and
expansion of services. For instance many of these projects in Mozambique are
now being staffed by citizens of that country.
There are other very exciting developments such as the opening of
transfrontier parks including the Greater Limpopo and Kgalagadi which are major
achievements in the region as it involved the co-operation of several countries
within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
In the same vein, the development of the Inga Dam and the completion of
feasibility studies around the Bas Congo SDI in the Democratic Repiblic of
Congo (DRC) will go a long way in addressing challenges facing the region in
terms of energy and unlocking mining potential in the area. Also, the Mtwara
Development Corridor, spanning Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania has
identified key anchor projects around mining, agriculture and fisheries. The
identification of these projects, illustrates a big strength of the SDI, viz
that a Corridor represents a package of opportunities beyond that of being a
transport corridor.
These opportunities begin here and will only become greater in future. We
subscribe fully to the idea that African countries, endowed as they are with
such tremendous natural and human resources, have the potential to develop into
modern industrialised states that can compete successfully on the world stage
with other developed and newly industrialised nations.
To achieve this vision we will work within the context of the Pan-African
initiative, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and we believe
that programmes such as the Regional SDI Programme are complementary
initiatives through which we can contribute to the unlocking of an incredible
range of economic opportunities that exist on our continent. It is also a fact
that no great effort of the kind we are undertaking has ever been undertaken in
history without the support of citizens from across the globe. We therefore
invite the support of the international community to reinforce our efforts.
Our investors must also know that we are very aware that a critically
important institutional challenge is to continually improve the environment in
which we seek to promote trade and investment. We know that it is not enough to
simply identify, scope and present profiled investment projects to the market.
So collectively we are doing more to ensure that the institutional framework
for promoting trade and investment is improved.
To our investors we also say that it is our proven experience that the SDI
methodology is ideally suited to the promotion of international and
intra-Africa trade, the identification and removal of infrastructural and
institutional constraints to economic development and therefore promotes the
crowding-in of investment.
In this regard, I want to end off by quoting Mao Zedong, he said that "if
you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it
yourself"â¦.in other words, "all genuine knowledge originates in direct
experience". I urge you to experience investment in Africa, for your self.
Thank you
Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
31 October 2007
Source: Department of Trade and Industry (http://www.thedti.gov.za)
