5 September 2001
Chairperson,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to be spending the evening with you tonight, especially in the region of my birth. I really feel at home among you.
Ladies and gentlemen, I spent the last few days at the World Conference Against Racism, where governments and civil society formations from around the world are engaging one another on issues of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Having listened to the debates and deliberations, it reinforced in my mind that as South Africans, we should all take enormous pride that our country can now host such conferences. This is because of the strides we have made as a country. When I see some of the problems being experienced in other countries, I feel proud of what we have achieved since the advent of democracy in 1994, and the process we engaged in leading up to the ushering in of a new democratic society.
We have come a long way, and we are mindful of the fact that we still have a considerable distance to travel. At the social delivery level, we have achieved a lot in a short space of time. I am sure you are well aware what the situation is in the areas of the delivery of housing and health care facilities, water and education provision, et cetera.
Despite these positive changes, the struggle for sustainable jobs, investment and development present the real challenges for us as a country within the continent of Africa. Our success as a country will ultimately be judged on the extent to which we improve the quality of lives of our people.
The challenge of economic reconstruction is a major priority of this government. By far we have proved as a country to have one of the best managed economies in the developing world.
Our budget deficits have been substantially reduced, our credit ratings continue to improve and our macro-economic management has ensured stability. This has cushioned us within the context of the current slow down in the world economy.
We are still convinced that the path we have chosen is the correct one. We need to stay on course and transform our economy into an engine of growth and development.
We have moved rapidly to secure trade agreements with our major trading partners, the European Union and the United States. The European Free Trade Agreement open major export opportunities for local business. The same applies to the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act. Business now needs to take the lead and penetrate these foreign markets with locally produced products.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a country we are highly regarded by other nations, which places expectations on us with regard to issues that concern human kind.
In this regard, together with other African countries, we have embarked on the New African Initiative, a programme aimed at the recovery of our continent. The central thrust of this initiative is to eradicate poverty, ensure sustainable development and promote trade and investments, and also to work towards peace and stability and good governance.
As governments, we are working hard to ensure that we achieve a democratic culture and an end to conflicts in the continent. The business community in our country should also begin to search for opportunities that will be brought by the recovery of Africa. Business in this region should not be left behind.
Locally, the challenge now for government is to provide and lead in infrastructural development that will improve our logistic capabilities to penetrate foreign markets.
By way of example, we recently released a small herd of elephants in the region in the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park - a declared World heritage site.
Government has already put out to the market 16 sites for investment and is soliciting interest from the private sector. Our vision is to create a world- renowned destination for foreign tourists. We are promoting that region for major resort development.
The challenge for communities and emerging businesses is to use these opportunities to maximum potential. Herein, lie the opportunities for the people of this region to produce a unique range of art and craft, a unique unforgettable tourism experience, and a set of services that can compare with the best in the world.
Successful international tourism happens when visitors can access destinations with a minimum of hassles. To avoid lip service to this, national government is fully supportive of an early relocation of the Durban International Airport to la Mercy.
Together, with the province and the Durban Unicity we are working closely to develop a concept of a multi-modal logistics platform to serve this region. The new airport will be connected to the port of Richards Bay and port of Durban through rail and road, which will have immense capability.
The second pillar of our strategy with the new King Shaka Airport is to build airfreight volumes to attract freighter traffic to this region. This will offer local business the ability to export time critical goods in selected foreign markets and clearly anywhere on the African continent.
The production of organic products has also been identified as an area with huge export potential. These products require high levels of labour absorption. These produce also fetch high prices internationally. This has the potential to become our new gold.
The port of Richards Bay is also likely to be given to go ahead to establish and Industrial Development Zone adjacent to the port. This will provide a major boost in efforts to attract foreign direct investment into downstream beneficiation and value adding of the major industrial sectors.
We are also encouraging Portnet to establish a fully-fledged container terminal at the port to support the IDZ and existing manufacturers. Linked by rail to the port of Durban, the port of Richards Bay will provide shippers with the infrastructure to make one port of call. I am certain that together with the region's application for and IDZ - a container facility will be given the green light.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to begin to think and act therefore as one integrated region serving global economies through exports and value adding activities. To achieve this we need to mobilise all our sectors. Business must lead through example by supporting educational and training institutions skilled labour requirements of tomorrow.
This is already happening through the levies collected under the auspices of the Skills Development Act. In addition, formal business needs to assist emerging enterprises development. This will ensure the spread of ownership of our economy and with it, a more even distribution of wealth.
Another opportunity being offered by government is the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme. In this province, the nodal points include Msinga, Nkandla, Hlabisa and Nongoma. It is bound to open opportunities for partnership between government and business around infrastructure development, and would also make these areas economically viable.
Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow I will take up the position of Chancellor of the University of Zululand. I accepted this on the basis that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done to promote economic growth and development in this region.
I therefore would want to take this opportunity to encourage local business to get more involved with the University of Zululand in a range of different partnership projects, which are designed to imbue our rapidly increasing professionals with various kind of skills.
Business has the social responsibility to also invest in the human capital of tomorrow through providing funds, equipment and facilities, developing innovative projects to ensure practical learning environments. This is already happening through the Sectoral Education Training Authorities nationally. We need to work together in a strong partnership if we are to succeed as a region and a country.
This is what provides countries with the necessary edge in areas that are critical to the new economy. In this regard, government has created the necessary framework through the integrated human resources development policy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I earnestly appeal to you to properly utilise the University as a resource, support it and synergise your activities. I also would like to urge you to adopt the university as yours, and assist in all its efforts to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It is important that all the people of the region regard the university as their own.
In addition, we should work towards ensuring that the university community, particularly the student population, is reflective of the demographics of this province.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me stress that we need to work together in a strong partnership if we are to succeed as a region and a country. The great developments in this region in recent months and years show that there is a concerted drive for progress.
I congratulate you on that and wish you all the best as you ensure that his region becomes an economic success.