Chairperson and hon members, in a world that is stitched together by commerce and globalisation, clear policies that guide a nation's interactions and relationships with the rest of the world are of critical importance. Foreign policy and its objectives to govern relations with the international community cannot be overemphasised.
Since the advent of our democracy in 1994, South Africa's foreign policy has been built on the tenets of Pan-Africanism and African nationalism. This can be seen in the amount of time and resources that we are utilising to export principles of good governance and democracy to the continent.
South Africa has been at the forefront of conflict resolutions and peacekeeping missions in Africa. Now, the investments made on peace and security on the continent have, quite correctly, been informed by the realisation that South Africa is an integral part of the African continent, and that our success is linked to that of the African continent. Although we have played an important role in this regard, we have not always taken advantage of the economic opportunities that our efforts have created.
For many years, the government has appeared content with fighting fires on the continent, but until recently, when the Eurozone crisis cropped up, it failed to take into account our country's economic interest.
We have been creating peace and stability on the continent for other emerging countries such as China to take advantage of. Although there are clear signs that the South African government is waking up to the need to increase trade within Africa, as indicated in the 2012 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, regrettably, this occurs at a time when we are rapidly losing our role as the gateway to African markets for foreign and direct investments. Investors are now bypassing South Africa and investing directly in the African countries.
In addition, different countries and regions in Africa continue to improve their individual competitiveness, and this diminishes our role as a gateway. We need to improve our competitiveness if we are to regain the lost ground. Improvements on our competitiveness have to be done in a way that conducts foreign policy in a manner that would take our economic interest into account. I thank you. [Applause.]