Deputy Speaker, at the SADC level, South Africa is closely involved in a number of cross-border infrastructure projects, which are driven mainly through the Africa bilateral Spatial Development Initiative, SDI, programme. The SDI methodology was developed in South Africa in 1996 as an integrated planning tool aimed at promoting investment in regions which are underdeveloped, but which have potential for growth.
The methodology involves a process in which the public sector develops or facilitates conditions conducive to private investment and public-private community partnerships. It is also an integrated process of identifying economic potential in specific geographical areas and the requisite infrastructure necessary to promote trade.
Initiatives currently receiving assistance from the South African SDI support programme are the Maputo Development Corridor, the Limpopo Valley SDI and the Beira Development Corridor SDI that has been suspended, but will pick up again when the political situation in Zimbabwe improves. Other SDIs we are involved in include the Zambezi Valley, the Nacala Development Corridor, the Mtwara Development Corridor, the Central Development Corridor and the Great Lakes - Bas Congo - SDI. They are all at various stages of implementation.
At a continental level, the implementation of Nepad programmes and projects is guided by the African Union-Nepad African Action Plan. The Department of Trade and Industry provides technical support to the Nepad Spatial Development programme through the Nepad Secretariat. The department also works through the Nepad-OECD Africa Investment Initiative to assist African countries' efforts to strengthen their investment environment for growth and development.
In terms of the programmes and projects for the strategy for the implementation of the action plan for Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa, the DTI has participated in developing an implementation strategy that sets out seven clusters of action. The implementation of this strategy is monitored by the Conference of African Ministers of Industry, of which South Africa is the current chair and is providing leadership in the implementation of agreed projects. Thank you.