Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to host the 5th India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Ministerial Commission Meeting

Pretoria – South African Foreign Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma will on Sunday, 11 May 2008 host her counterparts from India and Brazil, Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee and the Minister of External Relations Celso Amorim respectively on the occasion of the 5th IBSA Ministerial Trilateral Commission Meeting at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West, Western Cape.

Minister Dlamini Zuma will host the 5th IBSA Ministerial Trilateral Commission within the context of South Africa’s efforts to strengthen strategic trilateral political, economic and trade relations between Brazil, India and South Africa with a view to strengthening South-South co-operation.

In this regard, the 5th IBSA Ministerial Trilateral Commission Meeting will coincide with the 1st IBSA Joint Naval Exercises (IBSAMAR) off the Cape coast from 5-16 May 2008.  

Since its inception in 2003, the IBSA Dialogue Forum has made significant progress in providing an influential international platform from where the development challenges of the South could be prioritised and the marginalisation of developing countries countered. 

The Ministerial Meeting is expected, amongst others, to:

• Reflect on global multilateral issues such as Global Governance; the Millennium Development Goals; International Trade; Intellectual Property Rights; Climate Change; Biodiversity; Sustainable Development; Racism and Xenophobia; Gender; Disarmament and Non-proliferation; Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, as well as regional political issues of global importance.

• Review progress made within sectoral cooperation since the 4th Ministerial Meeting held in New Delhi on 17 July 2007 and the 2nd Summit held in Tshwane on 17 October 2007.  To date, 16 trilateral Working Groups have been established in the areas Agriculture; Energy; Information Society; Trade and Investment; Transport; Culture; Education; Health; Social Development; Public Administration; Revenue and Administration; Defence; Science and Technology; Tourism; Climate Change and Environment; and Human Settlement.  The Ministerial meeting will also consider new areas of cooperation.

• Evaluate existing projects under the IBSA Facility Fund for Poverty Alleviation and Hunger, as well as to consider new project proposals.  To date, two projects in Haiti and Guinea Bissau have been implemented successfully.  Projects in Cape Verde; Laos People’s Democratic Republic; Burundi; Palestine; and Timor-Leste are under consideration for IBSA funding.

• Reflect on people–to–people participation within IBSA. In this connection, the IBSA Women’s Forum will meet on the margins of the 5th Ministerial on 9 May 2008.  The First Lady, Mrs Zanele Mbeki and the Minister of Public Works, H.E. Thoko Didiza are expected to participate in the Women’s Forum meeting.  The first meeting of the trilateral steering committee of IBSA business leaders is expected to meet on 9 May 2008 to discuss issues such as  south-south Connectivity; a Business Travel Pass Scheme, amongst others.

• The Ministerial will also reflect on preparations for the 3rd IBSA Summit that is scheduled to take place in New Delhi, India on 15 October 2008.   The 3rd IBSA Summit is expected to focus on the development of an integrated social developmental strategy for IBSA.

At the last IBSA Summit in 2007, the Heads of State and Government set a target of increasing IBSA intra trade to US$15 billion by 2010.  Recent statistics on total IBSA trade are reflected in figure 1.

Figure 1: Total Intra-IBSA Trade, 2004-2006

Source: Trade Map

Media Programme for the 5th IBSA Ministerial Commission Meeting, Sunday 11 May 2008

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
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9 May 2008