van der Merwe and Finnish Trade and Development Co-operation Minister, Dr Paavo
Vayrynen
3 March 2009
Deputy Minister van der Merwe
Thanks very much indeed
Yes we are happy to receive our Minister from Finland here to day to
continue the excellent relations that South African and Finland share. In the
signing of this declaration we have agreed to deepen our relationship, to
deepen our dialogue through the building of partnerships between our two
countries but importantly to building the partnership between the north and the
south.
We are really looking forward to really moving the relationship for one that
was essentially assisting us in terms of development aid to one where we
partner more deeply with Finland with ourselves as well as through regional
partners.
We have always been very grateful to Finland for providing us with a great
deal of assistance in the areas of innovation and of communications technology.
Finland is one of the leaders in this field and we are hoping to further that
relationship. The minister has brought a business delegation with him that is
the other part of our work. Today is to look at ways in which increased
investment can take place into South Africa and South African companies can
also participate in Finland.
So we are very happy to be taking this relationship to a new level which
will include much deeper partnerships amongst us in the region with Finland and
between us as partners as well.
Once again I would like to welcome you here your Excellency and to thank for
a very important and good dialogue we have had during the course of the
morning.
Thank you very much.
Minister Paavo Vayrynen
Minister thanks for your kind words.
We have traditionally excellent relations between us and the Republic of
South Africa. We started our development co-operation in the 1990s with the
traditional kind of development co-operation, Grand Aid, programmes financed
Grand Aid. Now we have been moving forward to more modern forms of development
co-operation, more modern instruments of co-operation.
We are especially acting in the field of science and technology supporting
South Africa in developing knowledge based society and environment is going to
be more and more important area in our co-operation. Finland is known for its
clean technology, green technology and I believe we can find a lot of common
interest in this field.
We have a business delegation of about twenty people. There happens to be
about twenty companies investing here in South Africa many of them have been
leading companies in their branches. But also in my delegation I have several
representatives of stronger companies looking for new markets. And of course we
hope that this business delegation is able to create more trade relations
between South Africa and Finland because there is a great potential in that
respect.
I am very satisfied with our discussions with ⦠(inaudible) lady this
morning. The declaration we just signed is going to lead us forward in the
field of co-operation. It is a good basis for that, so thank you very much for
kind reception, the interesting discussions we had.
Questions
In terms of the companies investing in South Africa I would like to find out
the areas of investment?
I would also like to find out about the development aid in terms of the region
and in what areas?
Also in terms of Zimbabwe what are your views on the lifting of sanctions
against Zimbabwe and in terms of the provision of aid to the new government of
national unity.
Answer
Minister Paavo Vayrynen
Well concerning the companies I can mention at least a couple of companies
inside your country that have made investments. Metso Corporation, it is
producing diesel engines for ship building and power electricity production,
Cargotec Oyj company also making investments and many others
â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦.(Unclear)
Concerning Africa we have eight main partners in our development
co-operation and five of them are in African countries, Tanzania, Zambia. After
this visit, I am going to Tanzania this week. Then we have Ethiopia,
Mozambique, Kenya but we also have regional co-operation. For example in
Southern Africa we are now developing the idea of co-operating in science and
technology in several Southern African countries. We have co-operation and we
are going to have a regional approach in the future. The same also concerns
production of renewable energy and energy efficiency which are areas that have
been very successful in.
We have in Central America a very successful programme which is implemented
in eight American countries concerning renewable energy. The same kind of idea
is now applied here in Southern Africa, energy efficiency and renewable
energy.
On Zimbabwe, off course we are following what the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) countries are doing. I have heard that there is
going to be a summit of SADC countries to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe. In
the European Union (EU) this kind of issue is discussed and decided at the
Council of Ministers level or in a summit. We are very keenly following the
developments in Zimbabwe, ready to react and change our policy as motivated on
the basis of the situation in the country. We will keenly follow what the SADC
group is advising us to do.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
3 March 2009
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs (http://www.dfa.gov.za)
