Programme Director, Mr Ashraf Garda,
Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies,
Minister of Small Business Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu,
Auditor-General, Mr Kimi Makwetu,
Chairperson of Proudly South Africa, Mr Joseph Maqhekeni,
CEO of Proudly South Africa, Adv Leslie Sedibe,
Social partners from business, labour and civil society,
Summit sponsors,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dumelang! Goeie More! Sanibonani!

Thank you very much for the opportunity to address this, the Proudly South African Buy Local Summit. 

This summit and expo offers local manufacturers and small businesses an opportunity to showcase South African-made goods and services. 

It is a platform for business people to access networks and opportunities that can propel their businesses to new heights.

No matter our individual reasons for being here, no matter who we represent or what our line of work is, all of us gathered here are motivated by our common desire to take this country forward.

Through this Summit, we want to encourage dialogue.

We want to bring buyer and seller together.

We want to showcase our capabilities and promote quality South African products that can compete on a world stage.

This summit provides an opportunity to alert the South African consumer to the importance of localisation as an integral part of our national growth and development strategy.

Ours is a simple message.

If we want our economy to grow, then we need to buy more local goods and services.

If we want new jobs and better opportunities, then we need to buy more local goods and services.

If we want to tackle poverty and reduce inequality, then we need to buy more local goods and services.

South Africa is invested in establishing a strong manufacturing base.

We are pursuing a path of industrial expansion so that we may extract greater value from our natural resources, so that we may export more, so that we may create more jobs and so that we can sustain higher levels of economic growth.

This path will not be possible, however, if we continue to favour imported goods and services over South African products.

We believe that the buy-local strategy is vitally important to sustain a massive increase in investment in the country's manufacturing capacity.

The buy-local strategy is the most effective way to ensure that income earned in this country remains in this country.

It is the most effective way to build up domestic savings, improve our balance of payments and promote a stable macroeconomic environment.

As we buy more local goods and services, companies are encouraged to invest more in research and development.

They are encouraged to build new factories, invest in new machines, acquire new technology, and recruit and train new people.

We therefore want this Summit to share ideas and experience on how we can enhance the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of local goods and services.

We want this Summit to focus on improving productivity and developing our manufacturing capacity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This Summit celebrates and promotes all that is good, enterprising and innovative about us as South Africans.

It reminds us that South Africans are innovators and trendsetters.

It reminds us that South Africans work hard, that we solve problems, and that we respond to adversity with imagination and determination.

This Buy Local Summit serves as a reminder that South Africans adore, have an appetite for, and devour local products.

We have a rich seam of popular South African music, of art, of drama.

We have our own sounds, our own rhythm, our own words.

Locally brewed dramas like Uzalo, Generations, Muvhango, Skeem Saam and many others remain popular household brands for millions of viewers here at home and across the continent.

Sharon Dee, a product of our own Kwaito music movement, was correct when she sang: Local is lekker.

Local is lekker because it affirms our positive, progressive, dynamic national identity.

Local is lekker because it speaks to our beauty and strength as a people.

Local is lekker because it presents South Africa as a land of endless possibility.

As we meet here today, we are challenged to translate this sentiment into an economic plan of action.

We are challenged to produce, market and sell to South Africa's people products that inspire, excite, satisfy and delight.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Government is committed to supporting domestic manufacturing and developing the country's supplier base.

We are committed to growing sustainable, labour-absorbing local industries.

Together with our social partners, we are implementing programmes to diversify our economy and move up the resource value chain.

Improving the quality of education and expanding access to education are key to the achievement of broad-based growth, enhanced productivity and sustainable development.

Alongside this work, we must undertake an intensive campaign to massively expand local procurement.

Initiatives like the Local Procurement Accord provide a platform for social partners to agree to a common set of commitments.

Through the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and the Competitive Supplier Development Programme, state owned companies are implementing the buy-local campaign for specific designated goods. 

We recognise that these measures can be improved and are committed to working with all partners to find ways to strengthen our efforts.

While government and state owned entities have a critical role to play in advancing local procurement, it is the commitment of the private sector to buy local goods and services that will ultimately determine the success of this effort.

Many companies have set targets for local procurement.

We expect that many more will follow.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If we are to be successful, we must be able to produce goods and services that are internationally competitive.

We face stiff competition both from labour-intensive countries that produce goods and service cheaply and from capital-intensive countries that produce advanced products of high quality.

We must therefore work harder to reduce the cost of production, increase productivity and expand our skills base.

We must invest in quality, efficiency and innovation.

We are not asking South Africans to settle for less than what they want or to pay more for what they need.

Our economy is fully capable of producing a differentiated set of affordable quality goods for local consumption and export. 

As government, we are doing our part.

We have put in place numerous incentives to promote local production and consumption.

We are investing massively in economic infrastructure and establishing special economic zones to promote industrialisation.

We are working to lower the cost of doing business.

We will continue to vigorously defend intellectual property rights to enable investment in local innovation.

We recognise that around the world - and certainly in most leading economies - a big percentage of jobs are created by small and medium enterprises.

These are the businesses that have the most to gain from a massive local procurement drive.

They have the agility, the creativity and the nerve to access new markets and develop new products.

It is for this reason that government has established a stand-alone department of small business development and that government continues to expand its support to small business.

We know that a country's economic development is not simply a function of its natural endowments.

It is much rather a function of its human capabilities, the way it organises production and consumption, the policy choices it makes, and the economic measures it pursues.

Today, we are making a fundamental choice.

We are choosing to buy local.

We are choosing to invest in our productive capacity, our economic infrastructure and our people.

We are choosing very deliberately - as consumers, as companies, as government - to buy only that which our country produces.

Working together we can all become proudly South African.

The renowned South African poet Sandile Dikeni once wrote:

My country
is for unity
feel the millions
see their passion
their hands are joined together
there is hope in their eyes
we shall celebrate

As we gather at this Summit, we are giving expression to that unity.

We are hard at work - our hands joined together - to build a thriving economy and a better society.

We are fuelled by passion. We are driven by hope.

We are confident that, together, we will succeed.

And then, together, we will celebrate.

I thank you.