The ANC strongly believes that South Africa's foreign policy, which is characterised by dominant features such as the struggle against poverty and underdevelopment - especially in Africa, guided by Nepad programmes - peace and peaceful resolutions of conflicts and the building of partnerships, have grown stronger in the past 15 years, and the country's relations with other nations have improved.
In the last 15 years, South Africa has evolved as an influential developing country with significant growth in diplomatic representation in all regions of the world. The third administration that left the office in April this year devoted a significant part of our foreign policy attention to the consolidation of our African Agenda. We take pride in the work we have done in the integration of the SADC region. South Africa has around 124 diplomatic missions abroad, and of these, 62 are headed by women. Diplomatic representation in South Africa has also become an important source of income, with R5 billion having been injected into the economy by a diplomatic community between 2007 and 2008.
The ANC commends government for paying attention to the growth of our foreign policy. Thank you.