Ladies and gentlemen,

In the past few years South Africa has been through a formidable political and social transformation. This peaceful transition to a democratic South Africa is a tremendous achievement – and also an essential basis for economic prosperity.

We offered you our support during your years of struggle for political freedom. Our support is no less enthusiastic now. But while it earlier focused on the achievement of political liberation, it has since 1994 included a broad spectrum of initiatives, to strengthen democracy, promote development and build our commercial relations. We sees to assist South Africa in bringing the benefits of democracy and economic developments to all.

A main purpose of my visit to South Africa is to strengthen the commercial relationship between Norwegian and South African companies. We can observe a tremendous increase of interest from Norwegian companies in the South African market. There is no better proof than a look at the business delegation accompanying me, totalling almost 60 business representatives. This is more than double the size of other business delegations that have visited South Africa on previous occasions.

On a commercial level, South Africa provides the perfect gateway to a market of approximately 180 million people in the SADC region.

Norway was among the countries loyal to the sanctions established by the UN in the period between 1986 oh 1992. This partly explains why trade figures still are lower than we had hoped for. Since 1992, however, there has been a surge in trade between our two countries. We are also pleased to note the important increase in Norwegian investments in South Africa. This confirms the Norwegian companies’ confidence in the South African economy. Moreover, such investments contribute to employment in South Africa.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Norway has state of the art expertise and competence in the management of natural resources, such as energy, fisheries, forests and in other sectors like IT, shipping and environmental technology. We believe we can use this experience to create flourishing business ventures together with you.

It is our firm belief that South Africa plays a strategic role on the African continent. Our own history has taught us the need to co-operate with one’s neighbours in developing new markets and promoting industrial relations. I am pleased to state that Norway will continue to support South Africa through our development co-operation agreement, with its emphasis on regional co-operation.

In March 1999, when the then President Nelson Mandela visited Norway, a Declaration of Intent was signed extending the existing development co-operation agreement. We also celebrated the bonds between our two countries by jointly declaring our intention to enhance co-operation and strengthen existing bilateral consultations.

The Norwegian and South African Governments furthermore declared their joint intentions to seek to involve other countries in the region in order to maximise the benefits to the region as a whole.

The main elements of our commercial and social co-operation are already in place. The established programmes will form the nucleus of our continued co-operation, but will be improved and extended as we proceed.

Norway is making 320 million Rands available for development co-operation between South Africa and Norway. The areas of support will include:

• peace, democracy and human rights,
• the environment,
• economic development,
• social development and
• culture.

These areas of co-operation form part of a long-term commitment that goes beyond the traditional scope of development co-operation.

Ladies and gentlemen, this morning I met with President Mbeki in Pretoria. We had excellent discussions on how to facilitate economic co-operation between South Africa and Norway. The positive atmosphere in this meeting and the stimulating debate I know has been taking place at this seminar augurs well for profitable commercial co-operation between our two countries.

I am very happy that I had the opportunity to participate at this luncheon, and I wish you every success in creating business between South African and Norwegian companies.

Thank you for your attention.