Hon Chairperson, hon Minister Trevor Manuel, hon members, Statistician-General, the staff of Statistics SA, guests, friends and patrons, the international statistical development responsibilities are informed by the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. Principle 9 relates to the use of international concepts, classifications and methods to promote the consistency and the efficiency of statistical systems between countries. Principle 10 relates to bilateral and multilateral co-operation to improve the system of official statistics in all the countries, as the Minister has said.
Beginning from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s there was a general decline in statistical production in Africa on account of poor economic performance and the low priority governments placed on statistical production. This decline became a major concern to both national governments and development partners.
Subsequently, there have been several initiatives and policy decisions adopted by the African states. The 16th meeting of African Ministers responsible for economic planning and development adopted the Addis Ababa Plan of Action for Statistical Development in Africa in the 1990s, which was formulated following a detailed assessment of national statistical capacity undertaken in 32 African countries.
One of Africa's initiatives was the Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics, which led to the Africa Symposium on Statistical Development in Cape Town in January 2006. Among other initiatives and major legal frameworks adopted to build an integrated and prosperous Africa were the Lagos Plan of Action, the Abuja Treaty, the Sirte Declaration, and the creation of the African Union and its New Partnership for Africa's Development.
The ANC's strategy and tactics document, as adopted by the 52nd national conference, states that South Africa's interests in a complex and unpredictable global environment necessitate the building of capacity for strategic and rapid responses to changes in our region, Africa and the world. Within this context, our global strategy will remain firmly anchored on the African continent and developing countries.
The Statistics Act of 1999 provides for South Africa's Statistician-General to participate in international statistical activities and to build relations with international statistics role-players. The Act further directs the Statistician-General to endeavour to fulfil the Republic's international statistics reporting obligations and to liaise with other countries and their statistics agencies, as well as to represent Statistics SA internationally on statistics matters.
The international relations division of Statistics SA is tasked with providing for international statistics liaison and support in order to facilitate adherence to international best practice and for there to be harmonious relations between Statistics SA and the international, and specifically African, statistics fraternity. It is a division that provides a set of services to other divisions in the organisation, while serving as a professional gateway into Statistics SA for statistics partners the world over. This programme has a bias towards statistics development in Africa, and therefore stands on three strategic pillars, namely the promotion of statistics development in Africa, the promotion of a culture of evidence- based policy formulation and decision-making, and the building of international partnerships.
In an effort to continually exchange skills and best practices with the statistics fraternity as a whole, Statistics SA's international programme will increase its participation in international statistics forums, continue to host international statistics events, increase its benchmarking, and learn from the best activities by undertaking co- ordinated study tours to leading international statistics agencies.
Since 1997, under the auspices of the SADC Millennium Census Project, South Africa has been a focal point for the project, and, under our supervision, we shared the training programmes with other countries outside the SADC region.
In assuming its role amongst nations, South Africa hosted two international conferences on censuses. The first of these was in 2001, and the second was in 2003. In 2005, South Africa hosted the Commonwealth conference on official statistics.
Statistics SA has an important role to play, as other speakers have said, in responding to the increasing global demand for statistics, particularly in Africa. Through engaging with other official agencies on the continent, Statistics SA has shared with and also learnt from other countries about implementing and maintaining international standards and best practices. Over the next five years, in order to enhance international participation in the production of statistics, Statistics SA will promote the importance of developing a culture of evidence-based policy formulation and decision- making, and continue to build international partnerships.
Statistics associations and councils in Africa have a definitive role to play in the continent's statistics development in renewal and maintenance initiatives of official statistics. These collaborative efforts are part of the leadership programme of making Africa a better place through its statistics development programmes. Following the establishment of our democratic South Africa in 1994, we are rising to become a global international political economy and are becoming an influential player, a process in which Statistics SA, in its pursuit of excellence, is playing a very important and much-appreciated role.
We wish Statistics SA every success, not only in its domestic activities but also in its continental and wider international ventures in fulfilling the priority outcome of creating a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world.
The international relations subprogramme of Statistics SA's budget manages relations with international statistics agencies. The key outputs include international relations and statistics capacity-building in Africa with a total budget of R13,2 billion. The ANC supports this Budget Vote. [Applause.]