Chairperson, I think we have had an indication of the spectrum of opinion on these matters, which actually leads me to believe that we are on the right track. To start off with the DA, I think that they have been showing themselves to be very good at describing the woes. In fact, there is a phrase that was coined by the late bird fellow in the ideological sense, Spiro T Agnew, who was a Vice President of the United States, which I think sums them up to a tee: "They are a bunch of nattering nabobs of negativism!" [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
And, I think, while they are that, they are actually not very good at offering solutions. You see, the contradiction with the DA is that their inclination was summed up by the hon Alberts. They believe in light-touch- only interventions. I think Mr Chance was also moving in that direction in his intervention.
By the way, I tried to search Mr Chance on Google because I do not know him, but I find that he does not have a profile on Google, so he must be even more modest than I. [Laughter.] [Applause.] I think the contradiction is that when it comes to the Western Cape government, they want to claim all of the programmes that owe their existence to our interventions when, in fact, they have done very little to achieve anything in those programmes. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
That is true of the oil and gas industry in the Saldanha IDZ. It is true of the clothing and textile sector. It is true of the television manufacturing that is taking place in Atlantis. It is true of the green industries that are receiving IDC funding. It is true of the film incentives that have been the support of the film industry and it is true of the business process services. All of those programmes in the Western Cape province owe their existence to the DTI's incentive programme. [Applause.]
Let me come to a few points as quickly as I can. Let me say that we do not believe that industrialisation will be confined to the South African domestic market. We are not looking at an import substitution model. We are looking at turning industrial development towards the continent. We are looking at promoting regional integration, because that will create a large regional market that will support and sustain industrial development.
We have just come back from the Brics conference. One of the interventions that we made during our tenure as chair of Brics was that we launched a study into promoting value-added trade amongst Brics countries, and we have agreement on it. That is an indication that we are looking outside - but we are looking outside in a strategic way - and we are looking to support manufacturing and value-added investments.
On the bilateral investment treaties, I want to refer the hon Hill-Lewis to an article by Ann Crotty in the last Sunday Times. She points out quite correctly that the very people who have been mouthing off about our cancelling the bilateral treaties are now themselves having second thoughts about those treaties in the context of the negotiations that they are having with the United States. [Interjections.] I make no apology for being an early mover on a very important matter.
Let me just say to the hon MacPherson that we are in fact working energetically to recapitalise the National Empowerment Fund. We do believe that the National Empowerment Fund has a critical role to play.
With regard to the question of the LOAs, letters of authority, from the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, who is he speaking for? He is speaking for importers of potentially substandard products. [Interjections.] The time we have taken is so that we can do a proper assessment. By the way, the time that we have been taking is much less than two years, which is common in other places. Let me move very quickly ... [Interjections.]