Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity to address you today. This forum, the Antwerp World Diamond Conference, is a critical annual event that draws many important players in the diamond industry, from production to manufacturing, and numerous of these players being South Africans. I am happy to inform you that we have amongst us several members of the South African diamond business sector, who are here as part of our deliberate effort to facilitate trade and investment between our countries. I encourage you to engage with and trust that you will find value in doing so.

For over a century, Africa's mining industry, largely supported by the production of a range of mineral and petroleum resources, has made an important contribution to the continent's economy. It has provided the impetus for the development of the existing physical infrastructure and has contributed to the establishment of secondary industries in a few of these countries.

Whereas the mineral industry has become a well-established and resourceful sector of these economies, Africa remains a leading world supplier of a range of minerals of consistently high quality. While the mining industry continues to acquire a high degree of technical expertise, local people in these mining dependant economies have not acquired all the skills they need to grow and sustain vibrant economies beyond mining.

Additionally, most of these economies are not able to attract diverse and sustainable levels of investment; however, their mining industries have developed some ability to mobilize capital for new development. This ability is of course is limited by the inevitable depletion of mineral resources in the long term.

Africa has now organised itself to deal with these and other challenges of development that they face. We have created regional and continental platforms such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and the Africa Mining Partnership (AMP). At the continental level, more than twenty five mining ministers meet annually to evaluate progress made on projects focused on environment, health and safety, beneficiation, social responsibility and investment. It is interesting to note that SADC comprises of member states with important reserves of diamonds such as Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.
These entities share a similar vision, which includes the achievement of development and economic growth, poverty alleviation, enhancement of the standards and quality of life of the peoples of Southern and the rest of Africa.

In South Africa, mining has become a focus of development in terms of stimulating employment and economic growth, entrepreneurial development and black economic empowerment and. Following our drive for transformation, several black-owned firms are now beginning to play an important role in the mining industry. The last few years has seen the emergence of several empowerment companies of substantial size in South Africa's mining and resources sector.

We firmly believe our abundant mineral treasures must increasingly be converted in the future into economic assets, both tangible and intangible, that will not only favour the mining companies producing them but also maintain, nourish and develop the economies of the countries affected in the region. We have also long seen the necessity of having remunerative activities taking over from mining once exploitation comes to an end. Ore depletion is a fact of life and all ore-bodies, even large ones, come to the end of their usefulness. It is with this in mind that we foresaw the need to develop the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). We did this in order to put emphasis, amongst other issues on the social and labour plan, implementation of integrated development plans in a coordinated fashion and beneficiation. We have consolidated strategies on the beneficiation of precious minerals through the Diamond Amendment and the Precious Metals Acts, which we have started to implement.

Amendments to the Diamonds Act are aimed at creating the framework for further downstream value addition and investment in the diamond manufacturing sector. It was firmly believed that diamond legislation as it was found in the previous Diamond Act did not benefit cutters and polishers who make up the first stage of value addition in the South African Diamond Value Chain.

The Amendments to the Diamonds Act introduce a new era in regulating precious minerals and metals in South Africa:
• For the first time in South Africa the trading of both diamonds and precious metals is regulated by a single authority - the Diamond and Precious Metal Regulator. This regulatory function replaces the currently existing South African Diamond Board
• The State Diamond Trader has been established to purchase and supply rough diamonds to the domestic industry as well as promoting research and development. The Board of Directors and the CEO have been appointed and they are hard at work as we speak, to ensure that the Trader is in a position to start operations as soon as possible.
• The Diamond Export Centre will be established for controlling diamond exports. Local downstream processors and foreign buyers will also be allowed to purchase diamonds from this centre.

The new diamond trader will impact businesses in South Africa positively as it comes with a sustainable security of supply. This security of supply is not only dependant on the country's production as the SDT will be able to import unpolished diamonds if the need arises.

Going forward, we are focusing our energies on attracting the right investors into South Africa, facilitating the financing of diamond mining, trading, polishing and marketing. This expertise is seriously lacking in South Africa, but it is vital, because it is what makes the diamond industry work, especially if the value chain is to be extended.

Botswana, Namibia and Angola are making noticeable strides into diamond cutting and polishing, and we await the outcome of their endeavours with eager anticipation.

Further downstream value addition would have a significant multiplier effects in the economies concerned, in the form of economic spin-offs such as financial and insurance services, equipment and raw material services, transport, energy and water supply services and business tourism. This inevitably also leads to multiplier effects benefiting other industries linked to the mineral and metal processing sector, such as construction, energy, engineering, environmental services, equipment/machinery supply, transport, logistics, financial services, insurance and security services.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for so long, many countries in Africa, so wonderfully blessed with rich mineral deposits, have been exploited and denuded of mineral treasures and yet received an inadequate reward for the yielding up of these assets. Shouldn't we make today a turning point for the whole continent? I believe for us to achieve that today we have to reverse the trend of being mining dependant as resources are dwindling and to develop skills and expertise in value addition, that is, cutting and polishing so that we can have sustainable businesses beyond mining.

I would like to urge all of you to take part in the Investment Seminar starting this afternoon where you will get an opportunity to listen to and engage on topics of great importance to you. Our programme is lined up with officials from national and provincial government as well as the private sector and the seminar promises to be interesting.
Thank you for your attention.