Chair, Minister and Deputy Minister, ambassadors, members of the diplomatic corps, comrades, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, I rise on behalf of the ANC in support of this Budget Vote No 5. Allow me also, Chair, to convey wishes for a speedy recovery to Deputy Minister Ebrahim, who is not with us today.
With the rapid development of globalisation after the end of the Cold War, the world has been undergoing some fundamental changes, including the emergence of new economic and political powers, and increasing global challenges such as the threat of terror, deterioration of the environment, climate warming, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Sars, and bird flu.
The ANC resolved in Polokwane to rise to this challenge of imperialism and agreed to strengthen itself and other progressive forces and develop a common agenda with the objective of realising a just and better world. Such a world order must be characterised, inter alia, by greater security, peace and dialogue, and greater equilibrium between the poor and the rich. In this we are guided by the ANC's principles of a better life for all and a vision of a better Africa and a just world.
To tackle these problems, current international organisations are relatively challenged and are faced with the pressure to reform. Since there is no existing world government, the only effort we can make in response to the challenges is to strengthen international institutions and enhance global governance through closer co-operation and co-operation amongst the great powers.
Chairperson and hon members, in contextualising the current epoch, the 2008 ANC Strategy and Tactics document correctly asserts that, and I quote:
Globalisation also means growing inter-dependence among nations, reflected among others in production and trade, financial flows, environmental challenges, health issues and migration. Further, improved platforms of mass communication help lay bare the advances in human comfort and thus the unfairness of massive global inequality.
It continues:
Globalised capitalism has also generated careless exploitation of natural resources, endangering the long-term survival of the human species. The wanton destruction of the environment, the threat to biodiversity and the danger of global warming are all a grave challenge that should receive priority attention.
Poverty will only be eradicated, ladies and gentlemen, if global governance creates conditions for the organic growth of developing countries. In this regard, developing countries should be able, without arbitrary restrictions and undue interference, to receive investments, grow their capital reserves, develop technology and strengthen their human resource capacities without the threat of their human resources being poached by developed countries. It must be made possible for our country to trade on a level playing field.
Emerging big powers, which include South Africa, have much more interest in international institutions and a desire to play a positive role in global governance. As beneficiaries of the current international system, they need to rely on the system to pursue further development. Therefore more involvement in global governance is in our national interest.
Chairperson, to enable the economically and geographically most vulnerable countries to feel the impact and benefits of the new dynamics, the new South-South and triangular partnership agenda must aim to help strengthen our capacities, not only by giving policy advice, but also by building on- the-ground capacities in order for us to acquire more relevant knowledge and technologies to improve the quality and quantity of our products and innovate new ones; to diversify and expand domestic, regional and international markets; and to attract more foreign investment and raise capital from domestic, regional and international investors.
Building a new institutional architecture of global governance should be to transform the post-World War II institutions, namely the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. We should develop new interregional governing structures of South-South co-operation, as reflected in the initiatives that we are in already - India, Brazil and all the others; the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership; and the recently initiated AU- South American Community of Nations dialogue.
We should also deepen regional and subregional economic co-operation and integration on the African, Asian and South American continents through structures like the African Union, Mercosur, the Community of South American Nations, CSN, and the fledging attempts to establish an Asian Economic Community.
Indeed, hon members, in the context of South-South co-operation, structuring greater interaction between parliaments and civil society constituencies cutting across Africa, Asia and Latin America with the aim of fashioning viable alternatives to neoliberal globalisation and perhaps other subregional influentials like Indonesia in Southeast Asia or Argentina in South America, as well as Venezuela, is necessary.
According to the department's 2010-2013 Strategic Plan, South Africa participates in the global system of governance to enhance the development objectives of the developing world, including the attainment of equitable global order. The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development will go down in history as having been able to bring together world leaders from diverse political persuasions, ideologies and world views. These leaders agreed, inter alia, that trade distorting and environmentally harmful subsidies had to be phased out and that trade should be linked to development.
As the ANC, we believe that the Department of International Relations and Co-operation is on the right track to ensuring the shift in power relations in global governance, as it states in its Strategic Plan aforementioned that it will continue to support the current momentum within the G20 through active participation in the summit process, whilst seeking to ensure that the group continues to co-ordinate an integrated and coherent global response to the financial and economic crisis. The G20 must also play an important role in maintaining future financial stability and providing much needed leadership in the reform of the regulation and supervision of the global financial architecture, including Bretton Woods institutions.
The ANC-led government's commitment to clean energy and environmental sustainability has been recognised internationally, and its being host to the Conference of the Parties, COP 17, in Durban in December is a testament to that commitment. It is expected that this session of the Conference of the Parties should not only discuss climate change, but produce a legally binding agreement to commit countries to a target for the reduction of emissions. South Africa should continue to work with like-minded countries to ensure that climate change imperatives are balanced with the development needs of developing countries.
Chair, the North's responsibilities to Africa must include the commitment of the industrialised countries and multilateral institutions to supporting mechanisms for and process of conflict resolution in Africa. They should also improve market access of African exports, reversing the decline of official development assistance, flows to Africa. They should accelerate debt reduction, including translating concrete commitments into tangible deliverables. They should also ensure investments in infrastructure projects and promote private sector investment. Finally, they should support the implementation of the agreed action programme.
Chairperson, in conclusion, the emerging market powers have the potential to challenge the current modalities of globalisation. What is typically up for discussion is not only the functions of global architecture, but more its formal structure. The most important contributions that the new drivers of global change can make for tackling global challenges is to help rethink the current rules of globalisation. I thank you. [Applause.]