24 November 2000
Minister-President Dewael will be travelling with a delegation of senior government officials,a member of the Flemish Parliament and Flemish print and broadcast journalists. Increasing devolution from the Belgian central government will see the development assistance budget of Flanders vastly increase by 2004. This visit will enable discussions to take place with government and NGO's around increasing their support for South Africa.
Minister Dlamini-Zuma will be holding a bilateral meeting with Mr Dewael and initialing an extension to the Cooperation Agreement between the governments of South Africa and Flanders.
Mr Dewael will also be meeting with Minister Ngubane, Minister Essop Pahad and visiting many of the joint cooperation projects in and around Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Cape Town.
Flanders, one of the autonomous regions of Belgium, has a staunch record of support for the democratic South Africa since 1994 and places much emphasis on the Flemish commonality with the Afrikaans language. To this end it has a unique interest in assisting with capacity building programmes.
Flanders contributes substantial development cooperation to South Africa (R48 million for 2000/2001) to joint projects with government and NGOs in a variety of fields from arts to science, health research to youth development. They are currently looking to expand their research cooperation programmes on communicable diseases (malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB) with the Tropical Institute in Antwerp.
For enquiries contact Dumisane Rasheleng
Cell number 083 709 8166
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
PRIVATE BAG X152
Pretoria
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