|
Press Comments made by South African President Thabo Mbeki and
Singaporean President Sellapan Ramanathan Union Buildings, Pretoria, Thursday
19 April 2007 President Thabo Mbeki Welcome President Nathan,
your delegation and other members of your delegation who are not here now. As
you know, the President has come to South Africa with a strong business delegation.
We are very glad indeed that the President could find the time to visit South
Africa.
Historically, the relations between South Africa and Singapore
are very strong. So we are very glad to take advantage of the President's presence
here in South Africa to look at what we should do to further strengthen those
relations. I am glad the President will see quite a bit of South Africa - Pretoria,
Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban which I think is very good
indeed.
So indeed, you probably know this already, but over the years,
beginning 1994, one of the areas in which we have had very strong relations with
Singapore is that of human resource development. As you know, this is a very big
problem in South Africa, ie. the issue of skills and the necessary capacity amongst
our people. As you know, Singapore has great strength in this area. The President
has now communicated other offers that Singapore is making to help us in South
Africa address this very important issue.
The other area is that of economic
co-operation. Again, the government in Singapore has been very keen that we focus
on this matter including a proposal from Singapore, that must still be pursued.
This proposal suggests that due to South Africa's geographic location, it become
a hub that connects to Asia, the rest of Africa and South America. Indeed the
government of Singapore is very keen that we work on this idea to see what can
be done. I think we are progressing towards this.
Singapore will later
this year become the Chair of ASEAN. We, as South Africa, SADC and Africa, have
a very keen interest in strengthening this partnership to address common challenges
of development. The President has just said that we should indeed look at the
experience of ASEAN over the years because this process of economic integration
is also a big challenge for the region and continent. Looking at the experiences
of ASEAN - strengths and weaknesses - will help us to speed up our own processes
of integration. I think President that this matter is materially important because
later this year, in July, we will have a two-day session of African Heads of State
and Government to look at this very question - ie. what other steps must be taken
to achieve the political and economic integration of the Continent. ASEAN's experience
will be very useful in terms of this discussion we will have in Africa in July.
President, I am very glad you are here and I am very certain this will assist
in strengthening the bilateral relations between South Africa and Singapore, as
well as that in multilateral fora. Welcome President and have a good stay.
President Sellapan Ramanathan Thank you Mr President.
As
the President has said, relations between our two countries have been warm and
friendly and long lasting. We have had a number of areas of co-operation and areas
in which we continue to co-operate - defence and also in international fora, the
United Nations, Non Aligned Movement and gatherings of various countries - G-77.
The area in which we have focused our attention largely is that of trade which
has grown and last year doubled that of the previous year to the amount of approximately
Sing$ 2 billion. We look forward to expanding this relationship.
We had
earlier proposed for discussion the prospect of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between
Singapore and South Africa. Since you are part of the Southern African Customs
Union (SACU), it will be necessary for all members of the Union to be in agreement
to move this process forward. We have done a number of FTAs called a number of
names - India with Singapore and ASEAN, Japan, China with Singapore and ASEAN,
Australia with Singapore and ASEAN. Free trade arrangements are working in many
of these areas and I cannot see why it would not be successful in South Africa.
The other area in which we want to co-operate is that of air services. President
Mbeki when he visited Singapore in 2005 and met the Prime Minister, reached an
understanding that both countries would work together to expand the air services
agreement and move towards an open skies agreement that we have implemented with
other countries. Nowadays, international travel is so widespread that we want
to see people moving as tourists and businessmen, developing people-to-people
relations and air traffic support. As President Mbeki has said, South Africa is
the hub of the region. With your membership of SADC there is an even bigger role
for South Africa to play in providing the economic transformation in South Africa
and in the SADC region.
As President Mbeki has mentioned, we have in the
past focused on technical assistance to South Africa. Approximately 600 South
Africans have been to Singapore and participated in our various programmes. President
Mbeki has assured me that the experiences they have accumulated have been valuable
to you in South Africa. We are prepared to offer more opportunities for such training.
As I said earlier, we are sponsoring a number of scholarships for South
Africans to study at our institutions of higher learning, particularly at the
Rajanam School of International Relations and Defence of Strategic Studies. Suitably
qualified candidates will be welcome. The School of Public Policy and Public Administration
has also, I am told, offered two scholarships into two programmes for suitable
candidates. Our universities too are collaborating. A technological university
has two memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the Universities of Natal and Witwatersrand.
As I mentioned earlier, we have been offering a number of training facilities
for South Africans and we will continue to do so. I am glad to announce a special
technical assistance project which we are launching in the areas of technical
and vocational training, hospital management and trade and investment promotion.
In our discussions, the possibility of sharing knowledge and experiences on the
promotion of tourism was raised.
The technical and educational vocational
training will provide an overview of Singapore's curriculum development process
and basic skills and knowledge that were identified in training needs and designing
in house programmes for your technical and vocational training. There will be
five places for these candidates.
The hospital management course offers
5-8 places for South African officials. The course will introduce the latest healthcare
management theories and practices and also equip participants with knowledge and
skills that are applicable to the management of hospitals in present day conditions.
I am accompanied by a business delegation of 22 members. Among them are members
of companies that are well known internationally - - Somoan corporation
would like meet industrial developers who are dealing with power issues, waste
water treatment and other matter of public utilities
- ST electronics is
interested to meet with companies dealing with IT systems
- Singapore Land
Transport Consortium wants to meet with transport ministries and government agencies
involved in land transportation sectors
All these are signs of our
growing interest in South Africa. It will be up to them to seize the opportunity
of the present day visit and continue with business exchanges in the future.
Overall I must say we are pleased with this relationship and look forward
to strengthening it with the passing of time.
I also want to praise the
leadership of President Mbeki and the constructive role South Africa has played
in the United Nations Security Council. As like-minded countries we are pleased
to see South Africa playing such a constructive role. I want to congratulate you
Mr President.
Thank you
President Mbeki With regard
to that Mr President, I want to say we are only following in Singapore's footsteps.
Questions and answers Question To both Presidents, if you
could elaborate President Nathan on some of the training exchanges that are being
envisaged? To President Mbeki what do you see can be achieved in terms of skills
development? Can you give us some specific information? Answer (President
Nathan) I have no details on the programme. We have made available the facilities
we have for the training of South Africans at various levels of skills in the
areas of technical education, and in some of our skills development programmes
which are intended to equip people to assume employment in industries that are
developing in Singapore and some of which will no doubt develop in South Africa.
It will be up to officials on both sides to work this out. As far as we are concerned
in Singapore, we are prepared to share our experiences and also to provide facilities.
The selection of the particular courses will have to rest with South African officials.
(President Mbeki) It would be across a broad band of issues which
President Nathan has already mentioned - for instance, the issue of trade and
investment promotion: we have had a number of South Africans trained in Singapore
in this area because as you can imagine this would have been a very important
area considering the way in which Singapore has grown over a short period of time.
We have had officials from Foreign Affairs, as diplomats, being involved
in economic and trade questions. It is important that diplomats are capacitated
in this way since it now standard to promote economic diplomacy in the course
of global diplomacy.
You have heard the President talk about vocational
and technical training. You are aware of the focus we are now placing of Further
Education and Training qualifications in South Africa. I am absolutely certain
we are going to need more trainers, more educators. So indeed, we would want to
take up this offer from Singapore to train trainers - Vocational and Educational
training to ensure that these FET programmes result in the qualified artisans
we require. So it is across the field.
The President spoke about the
issue of tourism. So some extent South Africa has the advantages, and perhaps
the disadvantages, of having so many natural attractions. This may be a disadvantage
because people may become relaxed and expect the country to market itself. But
a country like Singapore has had to be more proactive in promoting itself as a
tourist destination.
As you know, this tourist sector is one of the sectors
identified in the AsgiSA programme in terms of employment generation.
The
training will be across the board and will cover many things depending on South
Africa's requirements.
Question President Mbeki, what is your personal
view of a Free Trade Agreement with Singapore? Answer The President
has reflected on this matter quite correctly. We as South Africa would want this
FTA with Singapore. But again, as the President has said, we are members of the
Southern African Customs Union (SACU) so the other countries - Namibia, Lesotho,
Botswana - who are part of this Union must agree. The Customs Union is talking
about this to map out the way forward.
I must also say that there has
also been some capacity constraints, despite our desire, because of a whole variety
of trade negotiations that SACU has undertaken - Mercosur, India, and so on. Resources
in the region as regards the capacity to negotiate has been a bit stretched. This
matter is still under negotiation within the Union. This must first be completed
before we can enter into negotiations.
Question Mr Presidents, I see
Ministers of Defence and Intelligence in both your delegations. Could you kindly
elaborate on the discussions underway in this regard? Answer (President
Nathan) The Minister for Defence is here. We have had a general exchange of
views and are appreciative of South Africa's assistance to us in making available
facilities for training. Also, in the context of terrorism, there is an understanding
to co-operation in terms of the sharing of information. I am not in a position
to elaborate on the specifics. The two ministers did meet here and will continue
to discuss how best to strengthen this relationship.
(President Mbeki)
As the President has said in terms of the Defence Co-operation, the two countries
have had an agreement since 1997. Singapore does not have the capacity for training
in artillery because it simply does not have the space for such exercises. Singapore
then shares the facilities of South Africa's National Defence Force in terms of
this training. This is a programme that has been ongoing for 10 years and will
continue.
Also, the Defence Ministries are looking at what other areas
of co-operation can be identified and will therefore arrange a meeting of senior
officials in the first instance to look at these areas of co-operation.
The matter of intelligence co-operation as the President has said, I am sure you
realize this, is a standard feature of all intelligence services across the globe,
ie. Co-operation in the areas of terrorism, money laundering and trade in narcotics.
This affects everyone and criminal elements involved in these activities move
from country to country. Even if there is no movement between Singapore and South
Africa, it may very well be that the knowledge that Singapore has may be of assistance
to South Africa. Generally, you can look across the entirety of the global intelligence
community, to realize that all agencies effect systematic co-operation particularly
in the areas of terrorism, money laundering and trade in narcotics. These tend
to be connected to each other in some instances and have a tendency to move very
rapidly across the world.
These are some of the areas in which there
will be co-operation amongst intelligence services of both countries. Question
President Mbeki, back to the trade issues - you mentioned that when Singapore
assumes the Chair of ASEAN you would be interested in furthering the Africa-Asia
trade dialogue. Could you elaborate on what your vision is for your region? Answer
You know that Africa and Asia met in Indonesia in April 2005 to commemorate
the Bandung meeting of 1955 which was off course, commemorating this Africa -
Asia co-operation. This is, of course, a broader process to intensify this co-operation
between both continents.
While I was the Chair of the AU in 2002 I visited
Cambodia to address the ASEAN Summit at the invitation of the King. Indeed, we
talked about the need to strengthen this partnership. I think what the President
has said is very important. We need to look at what the experience of ASEAN has
been in terms of regional integration - what was done, what worked, what did not?
This experience will be very directly relevant to what the African continent and
the SADC region are discussing - what do we need to do to accelerate our integration?
We need indeed, to look closely at this matter.
With regard to the Africa
- Asia co-operation process, there is a framework which emerged from Bandung.
We are meeting at Summit level in South Africa in 2009 with a Ministerial session
being held in Egypt in 2008. This is a continued process.
ASEAN is, from
our point of view, a successful grouping in the processes of co-operation and
integration. It would be useful to draw on this example.
Question President
Mbeki, what is your personal vision for SADC looking at the ASEAN experience? Answer
I am not able to set dates. It is a matter to which SADC will attend. It
is an urgent matter. South Africa in October 2006 hosted an Extraordinary SADC
Summit to assess this very matter. We were looking at what progress is being made
with regard to a SADC FTA, when will we come to the position of a Customs Union
that will include all 14 countries and not just the current five as part of SACU,
a common currency?
These are very practical matters. We met in an extraordinary
SADC Summit to look at these matters. There is a sense of urgency in the region
with a view to moving on these matters.
I am sure, a more detailed look
at the ASEAN experience will assist us achieve this pace that people in the region
are interested in. There would not be any foot dragging. As I have said, the only
reason one would convene an Extraordinary Summit is because we believe the matter
is urgent enough to be addressed by such a meeting. Issued by Department
of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001
19 April 2007
| 
