Notes following South Africa – Namibia Heads of State Economic Bilateral Meeting Presidential Guesthouse, Union Buildings Thursday 11 October 2007

Remarks by Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the media.

We have just concluded the meeting between the two Presidents.  The items on our agenda fell into 6 categories but in addition to that we had, on the first item of our agenda, a presentation on the Square Kilometer Array (SKA).  As you will recall, South Africa is one of the countries bidding to host the SKA.  South Africa remains, together with Australia, one of the remaining countries in this bid.  And it is something that will involve the co-operation of a number of countries in the region for the location of the required satellite dishes.  Namibia is one such country that would host some of these satellite dishes.  It was really just a presentation on the entirety and the possibilities that will arise out of this type of co-operation – engineering and science skills development.  We explored a number of possibilities arising from this.  So that is really the first thing that we did: for all of us to have a common appreciation of how this SKA holds potential for both countries.  Also I think to show that we are emerging in the region in the field of astronomy.  There is already the telescope that is located in Namibia called Hess, we already have the SALT located in Sutherland and this is something that will add to our involvement in the field of astronomy.

The other item on our agenda was trade and industry related issues; transport and communication issues; energy issues; environment and tourism issues and agricultural issues.

In the area of transport: the objective we have set ourselves is to have an overall memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-operation in transport because there is co-operation in the maritime sector and this will be covered by this MoU.  Our ports authorities will also have some sort of MoU.  The area of transport is an area we have identified as critical to the work we will together.  There are also various transport corridors between the two of us.  What the Minister did not say was that this investment conference scheduled for 31 st October – 1 November 2007 is the culmination of work we have been doing to develop the Walvis Bay Spatial Corridor.  So all of the work has been done to identify the economic potential and package the various projects and normally this is how we launch these SDIs, viz by inviting business representatives to market those packaged projects to attract their interest.  So, the issue of c-operation in the transport area fits into the various transport corridors we are busy developing.

In the energy sector we are also doing a number of things together: there is work that has been underway to ensure that out of the gas reserves or deposits in Namibia we are able to address our energy needs.  There is the necessary co-operation between the two Ministers but also between the two power utilities – ESKOM and NAMPower.  So it work that is ongoing.  We have received a progress report and it is clear that by the next meeting they will be able to mark some progress in this area.  So the Orange River, which is the river between the two countries, presents opportunities for hydro power generation and we have agreed in this meeting that work should proceed to look at the possibility of creating a hydro electric power plant along the Orange River.  There is the larger project called the Southern Africa Power Pool that involves the DRC, Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Botswana.  It is an initiative that was started under the auspices of SADC because the projection then was that come 2007 we were going to begin to experience power challenges.  We initiated this process to invest in new power generation.  This has got various aspects.  In other words, there are various power projects that are located in various countries.  In so far as WesCor (The Western Power Corridor) which involves South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Botswana and the DRC each of whom own 20% of this project.  Work that has been going on in that area, the funding has been sourced to take this work forward.  And all of us, because we are grappling with the challenge of energy security and there is stronger movement towards sources of cleaner energy.  Nuclear energy is an issue that has merged as something that is on the agenda of the world at the moment, viz. to look at nuclear energy as part of the mix when considering sources of energy.  So this is another area where we are looking at co-operating more closely.

On Friday 12 October 2007 we will open the Mata-Mata Tourist Access Facility and Border Post between South Africa and Namibia.  The two Presidents will attend this ceremony.  Next week, there is another border post that will be opened by the Ministers.  There are various matters in the area of cross border tourism that we are investigating.  Namibia has sand dunes; South Africa banned the driving of 4 X 4s on our sand and so a lot of South Africans who enjoyed this pastime have migrated to Namibia – quad bikes and so on which are regulated in Namibia.  They way in which they went about this is without acceding to the necessary Namibian legislation so that is an issue the two Ministers of Environment and Tourism are addressing.

In terms of the 2010 Soccer World Cup: Namibia has established an inter-ministerial committee to determine how they can best benefit from South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.  We have agreed on a mechanism that will ensure we can have this co-ordination.  We also received a report on collaboration in the area of marine and coastal management of South Africa and Namibia.  It largely involves issues of capacity building, skills training, co-operation with South Africa providing the necessary capacity building support and both Angola and Namibia have expressed satisfaction in terms of how they are benefiting from this co-operation. 

Lastly, the area of agriculture: outbreaks of diseases impact on trade relations.  We have therefore agreed to ensure we have the necessary mechanisms to enable co-ordination to deal with any such outbreak that necessarily has an impact on trade, viz. in some instances you need to halt your trade when there has been an outbreak that affects a particular product.  So, we agreed that we need to expand our co-operation so that we can minimise the impact of this.

These are some of the areas we touched upon.

Trade and Industry Minister of Namibia

Thank you honourable Minister.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media.  Thank you for your eagerness to report on this very important meeting between our two Heads of State.  The Presidents discussed, as the Minister has just reported, a number of issues and they have reached a good understanding on a number of issues on economic co-operation between our two countries, including the forthcoming Namibia Investors Conference scheduled for 31 October – 1 November 2007 in Windhoek; the transport management issues; environment and tourism issues.

With regard to the forthcoming Investors Conference they received a report on progress towards this.  The meeting was briefed that arrangements are progressing well in terms of arrangements towards this conference.  Different investors have been invited, arrangements have been put in place to provide information to potential investors with information, teams from the Ministry of Trade and Industry have gone out to inform and invite participants.  We have made presentations in China, Russia, the US, Europe and in South Africa itself we were able to make presentations in Durban, East London.  We had a chance to address the SADC Chamber of Commerce at Gallagher Estate where we informed them about the Investors Conference.

The Investors Conference is aimed at marketing a number of projects to potential investors in various sectors such as energy, manufacturing and many other sectors.  This Conference is a very important platform for investors to investigate our policies, the projects themselves, find out whether partnerships can be established.  So a full report was given to the two Presidents and they expressed their satisfaction.  It was agreed that both Heads of State will co-chair the Investors Conference.  This issue was discussed at length.

We also looked at our co-operation in other fields including the establishment of a Namibia Standards Institute.  These services have thus far been provided by the South African Bureau of Standards which has been playing the role in certifying standards in our country.  Off course, they are in the process of phasing out and we are planning to phase in the Namibian Authority and transferring skills and standards. 

We also looked at the promotion of the reciprocal protection of investments.  Off course, as I say, we are going to host this Investors Conference with the aim of investing investors, even from South Africa.  Now for investors to come into South Africa, they should be assured that whatever investments they make in Namibia will be safe.  Therefore we also looked into where we are in terms of this agreement.  This process has gone very far and we are wanting to finalise this matter when President Mbeki visits Namibia at the end of this month.

Other issues we looked at: the establishment of a Namibian Board of Trade.  South Africa is currently rendering these services to us.  The Heads of State were presented with a report.  Once the Board is in place, South Africa has undertaken to help with capacity building with the induction of the board members and other areas.

It was quite a useful meeting.  It was a business meeting that reflected the co-operation that exists between our two countries especially on the economic front and it was emphasized how we together as the two countries can increase our co-operation to increase our economic relations.

 Questions and answers

Question           Ministers, could you give us more information on the SKA – which countries will be involved, how many dishes will be hosted, etc?

Answer               (Minister Mpahlwa) The intent of the presentation we received was to illustrate the full array of the project including the timeframes in which the project will unfold and be constructed which would have a large number of dishes spread around South Africa but also in neighbouring countries – Namibia is one of these countries, Botswana in another.  These will be part of a whole array that will be immediately located within the SKA.  If my understanding is correct, when this is completed, you will have 4500 dishes spread throughout South Africa and neighbouring countries. 

On the issue of lobbying: the point I was making between South Africa and Australia was merely to state the reality that out of a race that involved other players, the two remaining contenders are South Africa and Australia.  Again, this is an area in which I am not closely involved but by understanding is that things can change depending on what participants will do to address their advantages.  I think that our people in Science and Technology can brief you further on their lobbying efforts.

 (Namibian Trade Minister) I am not sure that the situation between South Africa and Australia was before this meeting.  After this meeting, we support South Africa fully.  And we are willing to enter into a joint venture to allow for the construction to be done in Namibia.

Question           Ministers, (inaudible)

Answer              (Minister Mpahlwa) I think that as the two governments, because Namibia has over time indicated it requires, on the basis of its own energy needs, is power generation from water sources.  I think that on the basis of today’s discussion, the two governments have agreed that where potential has been identified the work should proceed for development purposes.

(Namibian Minister of Trade and Industry) All I can say it to reiterate what you have just said.  As far as we are concerned a 30MW power plant would make a serious impact in providing energy to some parts of our country especially the southern areas.  So we think we should be using whatever resources are available and accessible to generate this power.  Both Presidents at today’s meeting gave us the green light to go ahead to do what needs to be done to address this serious shortage.

Question            Minister, have we resolved the matter of the where on the Orange River the border between South Africa and Namibia is located? 

Answer              (Minister Mpahlwa) You are correct that this is an issue that has been in existence.  In a sense, I think this is an issue that has delayed decision making processes around power generation projects.  But the perspective of the two Presidents was that because there is a standing issue of a border dispute that will require certain processes including the involvement of multilateral organizations and processes, such things should continue.  But the work for development should not be delayed for much longer.  I think this was the basis on which we agreed.  The issue of the border can be resolved in time but while developmental challenges exist, we should not say that work to address this should be held back for much longer.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
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11 October 2007