Chairperson, hon members - Minister, I am glad to see you here - I want to thank the hon Dudley for placing this subject of debate on the table at this time when the National Planning Commission has just published the National Development Plan, NDP, for 2030.
I think that the chapter she referred to, "Positioning South Africa in the World", offers both a very serious critique of the global standing of South Africa, but also gives forward-looking proposals for repositioning South Africa in the region and the world, and I think this is what we must focus on.
I think the debate offers the opportunity, as she mentions, to reflect on some of these proposals, and then to take the debate further into our respective communities so that the plan becomes owned by all of us and the actions necessary for its implementation agreed on by all of us. Some of these actions will not be easy, and she pointed to that as well. In fact, some of the proposals in the plan will be very tough for us to agree on and, as the plan describes, in the interest of long-term growth and prosperity for our country, our region and our continent, might even have some short-term costs to our society. I want to talk about that.
To borrow the immortal film title from Steven Spielberg, let's go Back to the Future. Our NDP envisages that in 2030 we will live in a country that we have remade. It proposes that when we arrive in 2030, we will ask the question, who are we? We will answer thus:
We are Africans, we are an African country, we are part of a multinational region, we are an essential part of our continent and, being Africans, we are acutely aware of the wider world deeply implicated in our past and present, that the wider world carries some of our inheritance, and that we have learned a great deal from our complex past, adding continuously to our experience of being African.
That is what we will say in 2030. The past that we refer to in 2030 is not only the past as we see it today, but it is our present now and the future years between now and 2030. Now and in the next 18 years, we have the chance to remake the country so that those who will be sitting in this House in 2030 - maybe some of you - will give the answer that the NDP predicts.
The NDP suggests five goals that we need to aim for in order to secure South Africa's position in the world, mindful as hon Dudley had mentioned, of the rapidly changing global context.
The first goal will be to define our national interests, and I think one of my colleagues is going to deal with some of those national interests in more detail.
Secondly, we should aim to aggressively expand trade and investment in the region, on the continent and globally.
Thirdly, we should aim to harmonise our border polices. This is extremely important. Fourthly, we must aim to integrate national institutions responsible for foreign policy, international negotiations and monitoring and, finally, improve human security through effective transnational resource management and knowledge-sharing.
In the time allowed here, there are a few factors that I would like to draw from the NDP which I think need urgent attention, and that will have to be acted on urgently if we are to realise these goals. Broadly, these factors that I wish to draw your attention to are as follows: Firstly, our willingness to involve key sectors of our society in our international work; secondly, in pursuing trade in our region for the benefit of not only our own country, but our neighbours as well; thirdly, of unblocking the obstacles to regional integration and, finally, aligning government and societal actions to respond to the key growth drivers in our economy and that of the region.
I believe the first issue is that it is in our national interest that we work together with all segments of South African society in promoting our country in Africa and in the world. Our foreign policy is of course led by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation. Our diplomats are spread across the world and form a vital network from which South Africa engages with the world.
The plan suggests that our diplomats need to strengthen the economic diplomacy capacity in their work so that they can play a strategic role in Africa, and in addition to this we should seek to position ourselves as a strategic player between Africa and Asia, using our position in Brics. It further suggests that our diplomats should work closely with other sectors in our society to achieve this goal.
Our diplomats should be leading South African businesses into other African countries so that South African companies can capitalise on the growth spurt that is happening in Africa, creating wealth both at home and abroad. The plan suggests that diplomats may strike foreign co-operation deals, but it is the private companies that actually trade across borders. That's the one point.
The second one is whether we can make the assumption that regional growth will benefit the South African economy. It is well documented that growth in trade between countries dramatically increases prosperity, there being a very strong correlation between expanding trade and decreasing poverty. The answer to the question then is, yes. Regional growth will benefit South Africa, and therefore we need to see our neighbours as allies in our growth ambitions, and not as competitors.
What then do we need to do to speed up regional integration initiatives to stimulate growth in the economy and to the countries across our borders, and between us and our neighbours? The plan suggests a move from regionalisation to regionalism, which, it says -
... involves conscious political planning and possibly the creation of formal institutions.
It recommends that, where the institutions already exist, these should be urgently reviewed to align with our national priorities, but in such a way that the neighbours benefit as well. Such institutions of course would include the Southern African Customs Union, Sacu, and the Southern African Development Community, SADC, amongst others.
The Tripartite Free-Trade Area between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Comesa, the East African Community, EAC and SADC, which has been much discussed in this House, is in fact a practical and achievable integration tool, and has the potential to significantly increase South Africa's trade and investments. However, there will be sacrifices to be made in this initiative and in others, and these have to be weighed up against the long-term benefits for us and our neighbours.
The third point which is aligned to that is, what do we need to do to facilitate integration and make interregional trade easier?
We have also talked extensively in this House about our domestic and cross- border infrastructure build programme. By this we mean transportation infrastructure, information and communications technology connectivity, water and electricity provision and so forth. What will make trade easier is improvement in all these areas, but, as the plan describes:
A good road cannot facilitate trade if there are disruptions at border posts and in customs procedures. These need to be made more efficient and all the blockages need to be opened up. Warehousing and logistics facilities need to be available and functioning efficiently, customs procedures need to be efficient and government regulations need to be standardised.
I think that in this area international best practise examples are very useful to strengthen our cross-border trade. Other regions and countries have made some useful advances in this area, greatly reducing backlogs and providing easier border-control measures and systems for trade between countries and within and between regions. Again, as the plan suggests:
Such practical transnational co-operation has become a defining feature of globalisation.
The fourth point is the lack of co-ordinated action which will hamper the fulfilment of domestic priorities through our international engagements.
Government departments must work in a far more co-ordinated way to achieve the objectives of our plan for 2030. For all the plans to materialise, co- ordination at all levels of society will have to be streamlined. Policy and action plan alignment is vital, and so is our ability to draw on all of the available skills and resources in our society.
We have a huge amount of intellectual capital in this country, both in strategic knowledge such as mining technology and others, as well as in research and academic institutions. These must be harnessed and co- ordinated to produce a collective South African effort.
In conclusion, the NDP recommends that a high-level and high-impact task team is established to investigate our foreign relations, and develop definitive studies on our national interests, South Africa in the context of African geopolitics, and South Africa's role in the world.
As Parliament, we need to be working with the government to engage with this plan as a matter of urgency. I express this as urgent, because as we plan, discuss and reflect, other countries are steaming ahead. If we are going to get it right, we need to mobilise all our skills and resources, acknowledge how important our continent is to our prosperity and co- ordinate our plans and actions more effectively. Our future depends on this. One of the mantras - and there are many - in the NDP is as follows:
We say to one another: I cannot be without you, without you this South African community is an incomplete community, without one single person, without one single group, without the region or the continent, we are not the best that we can be.
If we are to secure our place as a significant and prosperous country in a significant and prosperous region, this will then become our work. Thank you. [Applause.]