08 August 2008
Programme director;
Chairman of NEPAD Business Foundation, Dr. Reuel Khoza;
Special Advisor to the Chief Executive of the NEPAD Secretariat, Dr. Gengezi
Mgidlana;
Executive Secretary, SADC Secretariat, Dr. Tomás Augusto Salomão;
Distinguished Guests;
Members of the Media
INTRODUCTION
It is with great honour to be part of this conference in which we will
extensively explore measures of creating a viable infrastructure network that
will promote economic development and integration in the SADC region. The Heads
of States and Governments have already engaged and agreed in various meetings
that regional infrastructure will be central to the sustainability of regional
economic development and trade through facilities such as hubs and development
corridors.
It is the responsibility of delegates at this conference to urgently ensure that
this becomes reality for it is our own respective countries that will gain from
these projects through economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation.
IMPORTANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS IN SADC
I cannot overemphasize the importance of reliable network through which
activities of economic development can take place without hindrance or delay. In
this regard, there is a need for market integration to be premised on the
availability of efficient border infrastructure and services to allow for the
free movement of persons, goods and services.
This will ensure the elimination of all the inconveniences brought about by
inefficient infrastructure and services as our border posts will thus pave the
way for a more economically-productive region. For this to happen, we must put
in place various infrastructure projects pertaining to the networking
industries, transport, energy and ICT as well as basic infrastructure such as
water, sanitation and shelter.
For the smooth movement of goods and services to enhance our competitiveness in
the entire Africa and the world, the networking infrastructure and its human
resources is a must. The availability of these facilities allows countries to
share production, cross country management, use and operation of infrastructure
including trade hubs as well development corridors. It is our responsibility as
SADC to position ourselves as an efficient provider of goods and services to
other parts of the continent and the world.
Amongst key infrastructure development issues facing our continent are those
that relate to transport and energy generation. South Africa supports the Nepad
goal of better and safer transport infrastructure to bring Africa together which
will be pursued through the development of regional networks and strengthening
the capacity for sustainable road management. The region must continue to
support the Road Sector Development Programs (RSDP’s) based on the network
management approach and on institutional arrangements to ensure reliable funding
of maintenance and accountability to users.
Other forms of transport infrastructure including rail, aviation and ports must
also be developed as they can be viable means to close the identified gaps and
deal with the missing links. SADC Secretariat along with the various development
agencies must be commended on their efforts with regards to identifying and
quantifying the missing links in the region. South Africa has learnt from this
and developed the Southern Africa Regional Action Agenda which identifies the
missing links, prioritizes project and aims to facilitate regional integration
within the region.
Increased investment in regional roads will be pursued under the framework of
sub-regional programs prepared by the REC’s. The New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (Nepad) through its Business Foundation will support the development
of guiding principles for planning and financing the upgrading of roads along
regional corridors. The Nepad Business Foundation has also made a firm
commitment to assist SADC member states in the preparation and structuring of
projects which will make them palatable to the financial markets.
The goal of the Nepad Transport program is to close Africa’s gap in transport
infrastructure and services by: Reducing costs and improving quality of
services, Increasing both public and private financial investment in transport
infrastructure, improving maintenance of transport infrastructure assets,
removing formal and informal barriers to the movement of goods and people, And
supporting regional cooperation and the integration of markets for transport
services.
The SADC Corridors Ministerial Forum recently took place in Windhoek, Namibia
from 2-5 June 2008. At this forum, the SADC Ministers responsible for Transport
convened a High Level SADC Ministerial Corridors Review Meeting, Corridor
Investment Programme and also launched the SADC Corridor Strategy. The forum
provided an opportunity for Ministers to craft a SADC rapid roll out strategy to
SADC Corridors Infrastructure Development, in order to support the regional
integration effort.
By government intervention, we do not mean the exclusion of the private sector
in any level of development. It is for this reason that we must emphasize the
role of partnerships between governments and the private sector both in
infrastructure and other levels and forms of development.
Partnerships with financial institutions both local and international must be
facilitated to optimise impact on our infrastructure projects.
Investment/Merchant Banks with expertise in or access to funding must be
engaged. Regional development banks must look at being more proactive in this
area and be more flexible with regards to long term financing packages that are
in the interest of the region.
As part of this conference, we must therefore mobilize the private sector and
development partners to participate even more in infrastructure development in
SADC and Africa as a whole.
In the same spirit, we must strengthen intra-regional co-operation, reinforce
public private partnerships (PPP) and encourage business-to-business
co-operation on infrastructure projects.
STRATEGIC APPROACH TO INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
All these relations and multi-sectoral co-operation must be strengthened within
the context of the NEPAD. As SADC, we have taken steps by adopting the Regional
Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) in achieving the objectives of
NEPAD both as a region and as member states, in our quest to utilize
infrastructure effectively for purposes of trade benefits.
At the Extra-Ordinary Summit held in Midrand in 2006, the SADC Heads of State
and Government reviewed the state of integration in SADC and resolved to accord
this process high priority. SADC already enjoys a political commitment towards
this common market by 2015 and we should use this to effectively gain momentum
to the realization of the 2015 goal.
What should be of concern to SADC is the lack of momentum-drivers regarding the
development of efficient infrastructure and services to facilitate the free
movement of people, goods and services across the region. The roadmap approved
by the Summit, compelled the region to put in place a robust programme of
corridor infrastructure development to facilitate and support the free movement
of people, goods and services. To this end, the Ordinary Summit of the SADC
Heads of State and Government held in Lusaka in August 2007 focused its
attention on the imperatives to deepen regional economic integration and
fast-track implementation of infrastructure development in the region.
I must emphasize that member-states constitute the key drivers and champions
within the development of efficient infrastructure and services. As quoted from
the SADC Amended Treaty, the respective national SADC structures within the
member states are responsible for the conceptualization and initiation of
projects as an input to the preparation of RISDP, in accordance with the
priority areas set out in the SADC Common Agenda. In this context, appropriate
national and trans-boundary institutional structures must be constituted by
member states to undertake the implementation of corridor development projects.
PRIORITISING INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
In the study ‘Infrastructure, Regional Integration and Growth in Sub-Saharan
Africa’, the authors recognise infrastructure and regional integration as two
mechanisms that can help foster stronger economic growth in Africa. They
acknowledge the general pattern in Africa that since the mid-80s, the main focus
on development in the continent has been more on improving health and education.
While importance of health and education can never be down played, yet without
the infrastructure the quality of life does not improve sustainably for the
majority of citizens.In terms of international donor support in the 1990s,
support to human development for Africa increased from fourteen percent (14%) to
thirty-four percent (34%). This shift was accompanied by similar shifts in the
expenditure of governments. At the same time, private investment in
infrastructure did not materialise as initially expected. As a result,
infrastructure had not received adequate attention in public policy and
spending.
During the African Development Bank annual meetings in Ouagadougou in June 2006,
South Africa argued that Africa’s infrastructure investment levels are far too
low to support the magnitude and character of growth and development that the
continent needs.
In this regard, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Trevor Manuel, argued that in
correcting these imbalances by scaling up investment in infrastructure, African
governments must take responsibility for driving their own development
trajectories. My own country has had its own fair of challenges in this regard
hence our current upscaled public sector driven infrastructure built programme.
In line with Minister Manuel’s contention, the responsibility for ensuring the
rapid expansion of infrastructure within SADC lies squarely with member states
which mean government budgets will continue to be the main drivers of
infrastructure development.
As we know, the domestic public sector remains the dominant source of finance
for infrastructure all over the developing world because it accounts for seventy
percent (70%) of current spending on infrastructure, with the private sector
accounting for between twenty (20) and twenty-five percent (25%), and official
development assistance for five percent (5%) to ten percent (10%). In Africa,
private investment in infrastructure is a fraction of this developing country
average.
SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
As member states, we need to align and synergise our national urban and rural
development strategies to the continental framework of NEPAD and that of SADC at
a regional level.
The South African Government in 2006 launched the Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) to help us half unemployment and poverty by
2014. Through AsgiSA we also see alignment between social and economic needs of
the country. While this initiative is essentially a South African programme. It
is considered within the broader regional context.
In order to realise the impact and to address the development discrepancies that
exist between South Africa and the bordering member states of SADC, it is
crucial that a close alignment be sought between the outward dimension of AsgiSA
and the inward implementation of SADC development initiatives, especially the
Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).
The obvious focus in terms of this alignment would be the context of spatial
development initiatives, such as the corridor development programme, growth
triangles, growth centres and transfrontier conservation areas.
When we talk of spatial development and NEPAD Projects, we in fact should be
dealing with development projects that have potential to promote cross-border
regional development and integration. These are projects that fulfill one or
more of the following:
The bottom-line is that spatial development initiatives must make a difference
to the lives of people.
MAIN FOCUS OF CONFERENCE
This conference proves that NEPAD is alive and working. This conference builds
on a previous NEPAD Projects Conference jointly organised by the Department of
Foreign Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry, the NEPAD Business
Foundation and the NEPAD Secretariat in October 2007.
Since then, there has been a renewed interest from private sector and
development partners to identify and pursue opportunities, including identifying
specific infrastructure projects for support, development and implementation.
It is in this regard that we believe that this infrastructure conference will
create a forum and facilitate that participants:
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that in promoting NEPAD and SADC projects there is a real
basis for mutually beneficial engagement between our continent and other regions
of the world which will support Africa’s development.
At the same time, it will benefit from Africa’s huge market and her endowment
with natural resources.
In this regard, we call upon all our external partners such as the G-8, the
Forum on Africa-China, EU-Africa, India-Africa, UN, Development Banks and
Development and Investment Funds, to reaffirm their commitments to support NEPAD
programmes and projects, and to also subscribe to the underlying philosophy that
NEPAD is the custodian of Africans over their own destiny.
Let me emphasize that our desire to ensure massive infrastructure development as
platform for further economic development may be undermined by our lack of
investment in skills development. While foreign investors bring about leading
skills in design and the building of structures, much of the supporting skills
must be borne by the local population.
In fact we must not shy away from producing skills that can provide engineering
leadership in infrastructure development. Let us not allow the lack of skills
development to define why as a continent we are in a vicious cycle of poverty
and global marginalisation.
I wish to conclude by thanking all the participants, in particular the officials
from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry, the NEPAD
Business Foundation and the NEPAD and SADC Secretariats for organising this
conference.
May you have fruitful discussions and a successful conference!
I Thank You!