MINISTRY IN THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
6 March 1996 PRESS RELEASE
The first South African International Development Forum (SAIDF) will be hosted by the Minister without Portfolio, Jay Naidoo, in Pretoria on 15 and 16 April 1996. This will be the first high-level interaction between most representatives of the internati onal development assistance community and the South African President, Cabinet Ministers and Government Officials. It is intended to review how donor support to the Government has been integrated into the budget and to encourage and agree on the directio n of future development assistance to South Africa.
Since this country's first democratic elections in April 1994, a number of development assistance packages have been announced by individual donor countries and other bilateral and multilateral development agencies. Such packages usually comprise a mix o f grants, concessional loans, trade credits, investment guarantees and technical assistance.
Before the demise of apartheid, most foreign development assistance was directed at the victims of apartheid via the extensive network of anti-apartheid community-based and non-governmental organizations, plus the liberation movements. Since apartheid's overthrow, such foreign development assistance is now directed to both government and non-governmental and community-based organizations' development projects and programmes.
The Government of National Unity (GNU) has established a process of integrating development assistance to the government and its institutions into our single national budget. The GNU is keen to establish long-term partnerships, based on trade and investm ent, rather than donor aid.
Nevertheless, the Government is determined to utilize specific types of development assistance to part-fund projects and programmes that are considered priorities of the National Growth and Development Strategy (NGDS) and the Reconstruction and Developmen t Programme (RDP). The ideal situation would be to target particular forms of assistance and link these to longer term strategic forms of assistance. These then, will underpin our country's longer term strategic partnerships with members of the global c ommunity.
Government remains committed to reprioritising all its budgetary expenditures that ensure the most cost-effective use of domestic and foreign resources to meet the basic human development needs of the majority of South Africans, especially those most nega tively effected by apartheid. The role that certain types of development assistance can play in widening the Government's budgetary choices is an important element, which allows the government to broaden its resource base to fund the country's enormous d evelopment needs and backlogs.
The first SAIDF will go a long way to achieving the correct types of strategic partnerships we envisage with our current and future trading and investment partners. These, in turn, will then form part of our longer term national strategic vision.
The first SAIDF will be opened by President Nelson Mandela and he will be elaborating on South Africa's unique position in the changing international development co-operation environment. Apart from senior domestic and foreign government officials, the f irst SAIDF will also involve representatives of this country's restructured development finance system, organized business and labour, plus civil society.
For further information contact: 1. Bryan Bench - (SAIDF Convenor) Tel : (012) 315 - 5923 Fax: (012) 21 - 9580
2. Faizal Dawjee - (RDP Communications) Tel: (021) 341 5569 Fax: (021) 341 9612