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Date : 24/03/2004
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: P Molefe: Invest North West International Investors' Conference


SPEECH BY NORTH WEST PREMIER, DR POPO SIMON MOLEFE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE INVEST NORTH WEST INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS' CONFERENCE, Sun City, 24 March 2004

Partnership in practice: Provincial support for economic development.

Programme Director
MECs
The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Mr Tito Mboweni
The Chief Executive Officer of Invest North West, Mr Piet Smith
Honoured Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am honoured to welcome you all to the North West Province and in particular to this historic International Investor Conference.

This Conference is taking place at one of our province's tourism icons, Sun City, which over the years has grown in stature as more and more visitors discover its breathtaking beauty.

In addition to being a tourism icon of our province, Sun City is a place at which a number of historic and celebrated partnerships have been formed.

It is at this place that the epoch-making peace agreement between the peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo was negotiated and signed, paving the way for partnerships among the Congolese.

It also at this place that the business community in our country, both black and white, decided to bury their differences and form partnerships for progress.

It is at this place that over the next few days we of the North West Province will be seeking to build lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships with members of the international investor community.

On behalf of the provincial government, I wish to congratulate our investment promotion agency, Invest North West, for organising this Conference and for choosing this venue, which is of symbolic importance to the success of this Conference.

Programme Director, one of the world's greatest businessmen Henry Ford once said and I quote: " Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success;"

These wise words by Henry Ford correctly capture the spirit of this Conference. This is a Conference of partners, a Conference that seeks to foster for mutual growth and development.

We are gathered here to build partnerships for success.

It is our belief that at the end of this Conference we would have laid a firm basis for us to join hands towards our common objectives. As the provincial government we are committed to the creation of partnerships between, on the one hand, business people themselves and government and businesses people on the other.

Our experience has taught us that; it is only through collective action that we can succeed in reaching our objectives. Indeed our successes over the past ten years of democratic rule have been a result of collective action by all stakeholders in our province.

Acting together, we have succeeded in building a provincial economy that has grown by an average 1,8% per year over the past five years. This was despite huge exchange rate volatility and a depressed global economy.

As a result of our collective work, and in line with the trend nationally, our provincial economy is now in a better shape that it was in 1994.

We succeed in placing our economy on a firm footing so as to be able to respond the challenges we face; key among which is poverty and unemployment.

Because of our successes so far, we are confident that; now more than ever before, our economy is in a much better position to take advantage of the emerging global economic recovery.

Furthermore, our economy will continue to benefit from the expansion of mining activities in our province. Figures at our disposal indicate that by the year 2002 mining companies in our Province invested over R8 billion in new projects. It is expected that additional investment of over R20 billion will be made during the 2003/2004 financial year.

We are also pleased that the labour relations environment, particularly in the mines, which were once sites of bitter struggles between management and workers, and even between workers themselves, has improved dramatically since 1994.

Furthermore, we succeeded in building a politically stable province where all political parties coexist peacefully. We have also succeeded in building racial harmony even in areas of our province characterised by rightwing extremism.

Our record of clean governance speaks for itself. Our province is sighted among the best provinces in terms of good governance.

In addition, we continue to make decisive advances in our endeavour to uproot corruption within the public service.

Our efforts to promote broad based black economic empowerment continue to gather momentum as more and more of our people who were historically marginalized gain access to the economic mainstream.

We also applaud efforts by the private sector to create opportunities for those previously denied opportunities to play a meaningful role in the economy of our country.

It is our view that broad based black economic empowerment is a necessary tool for building a more vibrant, all-inclusive and growing economy.

We are convinced that the continued exclusion of some sectors of our society from the economic mainstream can only spell disaster for our country both politically and economically.

Furthermore, through various interventions such as our learnerships programme, we continue to pay serious attention to the challenge of building an appropriate skills base in our province.

Our partners in the private sector are also engaged in the task of providing much needed skills to our people. We applaud them for their efforts.

Programme Director, It is because of all these collective efforts that we are able to say that; ours is an investment climate underpinned by a sound economy, political stability, a favourable labour relations environment and a government committed to good governance and expanding access to economic opportunities.

In other words, we are ready and have the capacity to form genuine partnerships with the international investor community.

At this Conference, we have mobilised the full compliment of our government's support structures for business and investment. Our dedicated investment promotion agency, Invest North West, is here to facilitate partnerships for investment in our province.

We have also created a vehicle for future partnerships, which we call Platinum Pride. Through this vehicle, we intend to fast track the participation of the private sector in our province's flagship investment projects.

It is our belief that delegates at this Conference will take advantage of the opportunities offered by Platinum Pride.

In conclusion, I wish to say that it has been a great honour and privilege for me to serve as Premier of the North West Province. As I prepare to leave Office and handover the baton, I have no doubt that I am leaving behind capable men and women who will carry forward the proud legacy we have built since 1994. I wish to assure the investor community that ours is a province with the greatest asset of all: quality people, good people, hard working people, people committed to the rebirth of the African Continent, people that will make ideal partners.

Take our hand and, together, lets continue to build a better province!

I wish you a successful Conference.

I thank you.

Issued by: North West Provincial Government
24 March 2004

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