Notes Following Press Conference by President Thabo Mbeki and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Wednesday, 24 November 2004

Union Buildings Media Centre

The following three Agreements were signed following bilateral discussion between South Africa and Vietnam, lead by President Mbeki and Prime Minister Van Kai respectively:
· Joint Declaration Partnership for Co-operation and Development - Signed by President Mbeki and Prime Minister Van Khai;
· Joint Trade Commitment - Signed by the SA Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Lindiwe Hendricks and the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Trade, Phan Tue Rue;
· Agreement concerning the Establishment of an Integrated Partnership Forum for Economic, Trade, Science and Technology and Cultural Co-operation - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad and his counterpart, Nguyen Phu Binh.
·
Remarks by President Thabo Mbeki

· President Mbeki welcomed the Vietnamese Prime Minister and his delegation;
· The relationship between Vietnam and the Vietnamese people is an old one, dating back to our common struggle to achieve liberation in both countries;
· Both our countries now face common challenges of poverty and development and we have focused in our talks on what we can do together to face these challenges;
· The agreements signed this afternoon provide a framework of co-operation in the areas of Science and Technology, Economics and Trade, Culture;
· It has been agreed with Prime Minister Van Khai that work will start immediately to give concrete substance to these and the respective Ministries will work on this jointly;
· As part of the process and showing our commitment I will visit Vietnam in 2005 to ensure that our work is translated into practical and dynamic co-operation;
·
Remarks by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai:

· Thank you, Your Excellency President Mbeki. I am in agreement with your comments made and on your summary of the important points on the agreements reached here today;
· This is the first time I and my delegation have visited South Africa;
· But SA and Vietnam have a long friendship and South Africa is a close friend of Vietnam. We have known each other over a long time and a special solidarity has developed and nurtured between us especially the relationship between the Vietnamese Communist Party and the ANC;
· Vietnam therefore considers South Africa's success as our success and we are happy with your achievements. We are specifically gratified by your achievements over the last 10 years and specifically under the leadership of Pres. Mbeki;
· Despite your many difficulties and challenges, the people of South Africa have achieved great results especially in your economic and social development;
· While we are highly appreciative of SA's position domestically, we also value SA's active role to mediate in conflicts on the Continent in order to restore peace;
· We have also noted South Africa's role in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and other international and regional organisations;
· The agreements signed will provide for co-operation in various fields and now we need to come up with concrete solutions to really make progress;
· There is great potential for co-operation given the good political relations between between our two countries. I believe there are good prospects for our two countries.
·
Questions and Answers

1. Andrew Quinn (Reuters) re the process of accession to WTO and possible deals with other regional trade blocs
Answer: Prime Minister Van Khai -
· Accession negotiations are taking place with
the WTO and the Vietnamese Cabinet is playing a central role. Vietnam has
completed the 8th Round of talks with the WTO working party in Geneva.
Negotiations are thus continuing at bilateral level.
· Negotiations with the EU are also completed and this will form the basis and be
favourable for agreements with other regional blocs and also Japan and the
US and China.
· Negotiations took place with the US administration in Washington DC before the elections and many important issues were addressed and we hope that these discussion will continue soon.
· We have received strong support from all APEC and ASEAN members.
· Our challenge however is that the Vietnamese economy is still at a low level compared to other countries and we need to work on that also with South African assistance.

1. JJ Cornish (AFP/702) asked re the next steps in the practical implementation of the three agreements

Answer/s:

Pres. Mbeki -
· The agreements will form the basis for our future co-operation;
· The importance now is to create the institutional mechanisms for these agreements.

Prime Minister Van Khai -
· The establishments of different committees are important like on Trade to implement the agreements. We are looking forward to concluding an agreement between the respective Chambers of Commerce;
· I don't think until now government and business have fully understood each other and I think it would be important for the two sides to study each others markets;
· South Africa is a Gateway into Africa and could offer an important channel for Vietnamese products into Africa;
· We are happy with Pres. Mbeki's decision to visit in 2005 and hope that he will bring along a big business delegation;
· We hoped that during next year's visit we can also conclude an investment protection agreement and a double taxation agreement and would call on all the related agencies to work closely in preparing these.


3. Peter Fabricius (Pretoria News) asked President Mbeki re the outcome of the NEPAD HSGIC Summit and the issue of better utilisation of African Pension Funds for funding purposes on the Continent

Answer:
Pres. Mbeki -
· Yes this issue was raised in the context of significant volumes of capital is in the hands of African Pension Funds, which is difficult to invest given the absorption capacity in smaller countries.
· There is the example of an African country - not South Africa - that has $5 billion invested in the UK, because it could not otherwise invest it in its own economy.
· There are many relative large funds and their national economies are not able to absorb this.
· The NEPAD meeting has agreed to look at how these funds could be better utilised in African investment opportunities. We must look at how we pool our resources to absorb the volumes of capital generated on the Continent.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
P/Bag X152
Pretoria
0001
24 November 2004.