SA-UK forum talks investment
Seshoane Masitha
26 August 2004
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says she would like to see the advancement of Nepad priorities and Millennium Development Goals through improved co-operation between South Africa, the United Kingdom and other African countries.
Dlamini-Zuma was speaking on the first of the two-day forum between South Africa and the UK. She is hosting British Foreign Minister Jack Straw in Cape Town.
Dlamini-Zuma's delegation includes Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, SA's deputy ministers of defence, sport and health, and SA's ambassador to the UK, Lindiwe Mabuza.
The UK delegation includes Britain's secretary of state, culture, media and sport, the chief secretary to the treasury, the ministers of health and the armed forces, and the UK's high commissioner to SA, Ann Grant.
The sixth sitting of the forum is discussing Britain's investment in Africa, and aims to
identify resources to finance development on the continent, as well as ways to accelerate the implementation of commitments made by G8 countries in the Africa Action Plan that was adopted in 2002.
The second review of the G8 Africa Action Plan will take place at the UK G8 Summit in 2005 to assess progress made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Straw said he was delighted to be back in South Africa, especially in a period when the country was celebrating 10 years of democracy.
"We are looking forward to continuing a close partnership with South Africa in the coming years, a partnership of equal members of the United Nations, who share a great deal in common."
He said the bilateral forum was "an engine for change, not an opportunity for conversation".
Straw also said that members of the World Trade Organisation had agreed on frameworks for further negotiations after the breakdown of trade talks in Cancun.
"We have to do everything we
can to ensure that the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next year in December is a success", Straw said.
Dlamini-Zuma said the two countries were strengthening their relations "because both our histories and our present have led us to believe that we are bound to cross new frontiers together".
"Next year the international community will meet to review progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals that we set four years ago.
"As chair of both the G8 and the European Union in 2005, the UK will be in a unique position to drive forward our combined efforts to address some of these economic and social challenges."
Source: BuaNews
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