FREE DAILY EMAIL

Date : 08/10/2003
Source: South African Revenue Service (SARS)
Title: Manuel: World Customs Organisation 2003 IT Conference and Exhibition dinner reception


ADDRESS BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF FINANCE, MR TREVOR MANUEL, MP: WORLD CUSTOMS ORGANISATION (WCO) 2003 IT CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION DINNER RECEPTION, 8 October 2003

Commissioner Gordhan
Secretary-General Danet
Directors-General of Customs
Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome to South Africa - It is my pleasure to be with you this evening on the first day of the WCO 2003 IT Conference and Exhibition.

It is heartening to note that the Conference is focused on Information Technology in Africa and that you have adopted the theme of using Information Technology as a catalyst for development.

Information Technology is one of the main drivers of globalisation. Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank described globalisation as the removal of barriers to the movement of goods, capital, labour, IT and telecommunications.

Globalisation is bringing about increased economic and political integration. The reality, however, is that the same processes that are bringing us all together in a global village are placing the residents of the global village in different positions. Some have emerged as the dominant and others as the dominated, with the dominant being the decision-makers and the dominated being the recipients and implementers of these decisions. This situation necessitates the development of institutions of governance that work in the interest of all the peoples of the world.

South Africa and a number of other developed and developing countries have accordingly strongly advocated for a strong, effective and popularly accepted United Nations. Recent dramatic events have threatened the future of the United Nations as a strong international organisation. We are faced with the choice of establishing a strong multi-polar international system that focuses on the interests of all its constituencies or a uni-polar world where the law of the jungle prevails.

At the same time, we must proceed from the position that the distribution of international power is not in the interest of all the players. Depending on the place we occupy in the world, we have different priorities. The rich are concerned about maintaining the status quo and the poor are interested in changing their condition for the better.

Over the past few years a number of new international agreements were reached that reflect a renewed awareness of the difficulties faced by the global community in combating poverty. The Monterrey Consensus and the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals were landmark achievements.

In recognition of the role of trade as an engine of economic growth, the World Trade Organisation also launched a new round of trade negotiations in 2001 in Doha. The Doha Development Round was widely acknowledged as a step in the right direction to correct the imbalances that currently pervade the international trading system.

The failure in Cancun to broker an agreement on the mandate for the next round of trade negotiations has thrown into disarray the immediate future of the multilateral trading system. To be sure, something happened in Cancun. But what it is and what it means for the world trading system is yet to be fully comprehended.

The Cancun meeting is the latest in a trend of failed WTO negotiations, the most spectacular being the fiasco in Seattle in 1999. In many ways the seeds of failure were laid in the outcome of the Uruguay Round, which started in 1986 and ended in 1993. At the heart of the Uruguay Round outcome was a structured imbalance in the benefits derived by the rich and poorer countries respectively.

Cancun saw the manifestation of a strategic realignment of power within the WTO. The emergence of the Group of 20+ significantly strengthened the bargaining power of developing countries. The result was an important moral and political victory, which sought to constrain the dominance of the powerful countries. Despite the gains, it must be recognised that this was at best a defensive victory. By itself, the collapse of the talks does not advance the interest of developing countries. It merely points to the need for change in the terms of engagement.

The challenge is to ensure that the multilateral system in all its various dimensions continue to enjoy the confidence of the peoples of the world and is capable of addressing matters of concern to all humanity. We need to maintain vigilance in regard to prospects for increasing bilateralism and the risk that such developments may effectively marginalise developing countries.

Our central challenge on the African continent is the eradication of poverty and under-development. The New Partnership for Africa's Development was adopted by the African Heads of State and sets out the vision and strategic framework for the successful economic development of Africa, characterised by high standards of living, thriving private sectors and accountable and democratic states. As an economic programme, NEPAD not only addresses Africa's economic problems but also the marginalisation of African countries on the international stage.

One of the priority sectors of NEPAD is the ICT sector. NEPAD recognises the importance of ICT in enabling the recovery of Africa and to facilitate our competitive entry into the world economy. The challenge for African customs administrations is to develop measures to support the NEPAD objectives and specifically through the use of ICT. The WCO 2003 IT Conference and Exhibition is a landmark as it enables Customs administrations from Africa and other developing countries to share information and to develop strategies to optimise the use of ICT in their administrations.

As Africans we must take these challenges very, very seriously. We must understand that trade facilitation is going to be an important leg of development going forward. We must understand that trade facilitation is dependent almost exclusively on the sound and efficient customs systems between countries. We must do so in an environment where we all take responsibility for ensuring that as we proceed in a world premised on primarily on free trade that customs as a generator of revenue for government is going to be less and less important, that customs as a facilitator of trade will become increasingly more important.

We must understand that the role of customs is to ensure that goods survive and that contrabands are outvoted. We have a collective responsibility to ensure that economic development is premised on sound clear rules and efficient administration to develop rules in the interest of all people but focussing especially on the poorest people of the world. It's critical therefore that customs administrations are dynamic and efficient to support the realisation of NEPAD and national developmental objectives. Customs administrations have to provide strategic functions on behalf of their governments. But the key focus has to be on trade facilitation.

ICT is not a stand-alone. It is a measure to ensure that we can facilitate trade better. We have the most promising opportunities because member states on the African continent are as passionate as they are about NEPAD. And because ITC is an important part of NEPAD and because NEPAD is focused on economic development, if we pull all these together and I think we ask of our customs administrations, our directors-generals gathered here, seize the moment, carpe diem, let's take the issues forward, we have everything to gain.

I thank you.

ENDS.

For further information, please contact Adrian Lackay on 083 388 2580.

Source: South African Revenue Service

SPONSORED BY

Advanced