Chairperson, hon Minister Mme Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, hon Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, hon Deputy Minister Sue van der Merwe, distinguished guests, hon members, Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and my family via satellite communication, I would like to thank the ANC for giving me this opportunity.
The current international situation within the South has changed in recent years. More countries than ever before have democratic dispensations. Our country has pursued co-operation with the nations of the South. It has done so through trilateral and multilateral forums.
These forums include the India-Brazil-South Africa, Ibsa, Initiative, the New Africa-Asia Strategic Partnership the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation, the IOR-ARC, the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation and the G77. These forums comprise nations that belong to the Non-Aligned Movement. Our theme, namely the "Pillars of the International Relations Foreign Policy of the Department" takes account of the South-South co- operation pursuit.
There have been important developments in South-to-South relations. Countries of the South tend to operate incompetently due to peculiar conditions created by the advanced superpowers within the globalisation framework. There have been social and economic challenges in Africa historically and the rest of the South, under the hammer blows of the structural adjustment programmes and generally rampant imperialism.
As we speak, there are millions of people in the South without access to clean drinking water; others will go to bed tonight without food. Poverty has increased in recent years in both absolute and relative terms in Africa, Latin America and the advanced countries themselves.
It is really at this period that neo-liberal orthodoxies have become increasingly hegemonic. We are talking about the dominant ideology permeating the world economy. It evolves within the process of globalisation. We recognise that globalisation is the process of trying to integrate national and international markets. We also note that neo- liberalism tends to paralyse the economy, creating a gap between the rich and the poor people of these countries.
As a consequence, developing countries operate under difficult circumstances because of peculiar conditions created by the unequal relations in the world economy. The current crisis has resulted in huge job losses and decreased production. Some countries have emerged more powerful than others. For example, China, India and Brazil have become significant economic powers.
Different countries have experienced the impact of the global economic crisis differently. South Africa and Africa, relatively, appear to have been trailing the abovementioned countries in economic growth. In intensifying South-to-South co-operation, there is a need to deepen co- operation with these countries and ensure the acceleration of trade relations.
However, our country might not be occupying leadership positions in any of the institutions of the South whose members are also part of the United Nations system. The state will continue to promote co-operation with its southern partners through the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum, the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation, the Non-Aligned Movement and the G77 group, as well as the Forum on China-Africa Co- operation and the New Africa-Asia Strategic Partnership.
Our country is aiming towards building solidarity and interdependence amongst the nations of the South in order to be better positioned to address common challenges, such as poverty, unemployment, education, health, and the challenges confronting women and the youth. South Africa will continue to pursue co-operation in the fields of science and technology, and trade.
We will focus on securing and consolidating trade agreements with countries of the North and will participate in new forums that promote economic and political co-operation, including the Africa-European Union Strategic Partnership, the partnership between the EU and Latin American countries, as well as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.
Our ongoing participation in the Commonwealth Youth Programme will receive attention, particularly as the funding mechanism for this structure has been changed to assessed contributions, meaning that there will be a focus on performance, which carries with it suggestions of accountability requirements.
Some studies suggest that peace-building or peacekeeping and reconstruction could be a rhetorical cover by powerful countries of the North and donors, while, in fact, they want to control or even practise neo-imperialism designed to recolonise countries of the South. This position argues that powerful countries tend to ignore the causes of underdevelopment, violent conflict and poverty, which characterise most countries of the South owing to the unequal manner in which they are integrated into the global economy.
The advancing interests of countries of the South and common positions are tabled in various multilateral and intergovernmental institutions, such as the United Nations system, including crucial organs such as the Security Council, and within important institutions such as the World Trade Organisation and the Bretton Woods financial institutions.
Some of the robust engagements that South Africa has had over the past year include talks with general leaders of the G20 on crafting a strategy for dealing with the global economic recession, as well as on the position advanced at the December 2009 Copenhagen climate-change talks.
Our country's efforts have been well noticed and, as such, South Africa was chosen by the AU heads of state and government to represent the continent in the United Nations Security Council when the nonpermanent seat becomes available in 2011. The United Nations General Assembly will decide on the matter in October 2010.
South Africa has also engaged the countries of the North through a number of forums, including the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership, supplemented by South Africa's own bilateral engagement with the EU, as well as the Tokyo International Conference on Trade and Development. The aim of the engagement with the countries of the North has been to cultivate new sources of trade opportunities, investment and development co-operation.
South-to-South co-operation is more relevant than ever before. Globalisation has profound effects on the underdeveloped economies of the South. It has effects on relations between the South and the advanced industrialised countries of the North. Globalisation has also been accompanied by a highly uneven and unequal process of liberalisation. Countries of the South have been pressured to open up their economies by reducing government protection of local producers and by privatising assets that can be bought by multinationals.
The global imbalances tend to compel the countries of the South into having conditional relations with the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, and the World Bank. This situation requires countries of the South to be more united than ever before and to co-operate in terms of trade and development. It requires the strengthening of strategic partnerships and alliances within the South bloc to develop a better life for all. These relations have also ensured that the countries have good economic relations, and they are doing that very well.
In terms of tourism, the statistics show that tourism has increased among these countries. This calls for the further strengthening of forces of the left, not just of governments, and the involvement of organisations, people's movements and international left movements in order to champion popular South-to-South struggles and economic development. With the co- operation of the South forces of the left and with the budget at our disposal, we can do more for our people.
This shows clearly that the hon Bantu Holomisa does not attend the committee meetings, and that is why he relies on media gossip columns. At a committee meeting, which he did not attend, we discussed issues of importance, of global and foreign policy, not gossip columns, but that is what we expect from him. He is from a party of fewer than three people, so they won't deal with anything. The ANC supports this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]