Africa And The Middle-East: Building Economic Bridges In A Divided World

I have a simple task in a short space of time, and that is to welcome all of you to this Conference, to Cape Town, South Africa and Africa. In Arabic: Ahlan we Sahlan (Our Home is Your Home).

I have just returned from the Middle East, the subcontinent and Turkey. I have met political leaders and business leaders. I return to South Africa with one critical impression: the time has never been better for the Middle East, the Arab World, the Muslim world to embrace the African continent.

Everything in this world we live in, this world divided between East and West, North and South, everything suggests that the time is right for a convergence between Arabs and Africans.

More and more Arabs are asking why should they be disrespected in the West when they spend their holidays there, invest in Western businesses and send their children to be educated there? And yet, despite all of these, their Arabic names send them to special queues at airports and their Arab dress makes them objects of suspicion and hostility.

Your presence here in Cape Town, on the Southern tip of Africa should already have shown you a country and a continent which respects both local Muslims and Islam generally. To us, your religion, your names and your dress are not objects of suspicion and hostility, but rather respect. We know that it was precisely the contact between Africa an the Arab world that led to a civilization in Africa of which the rich intellectual heritage of Timbuktu is but one symbol.

Today specifically I welcome you as entrepreneurs and economic actors. In welcoming all of you I want to single out our guests from Nakheel or Dubai World. In a sense, we are also their guests since their purchase of the Waterfront where we meet today. In singling them out I wish to place on record our thanks not only that they have purchased the Waterfront together with London and Regional and a BEE consortium led by Hassan Adams, and not only because they have committed a further USS 1 billion for the next phase of the development of the Waterfront.

I thank them also that, in doing all of this, they bring to us a boldness of vision, a scale of operation and an urgency of action that South Africa appreciates given the deadline the world has set us in preparing for World Cup 2010.

All of these have challenged us greatly in South Africa to match the boldness, the scale and the urgency with which all of you wish to do business with us. This does not mean that you want us to cut corners, but that we should find ways to observe our procedures, but on a time frame that is accelerated. The building of our World Cup 2010 stadium shows that it is possible and we have the will. Neither does this mean that you want us to compromise the need to empower and employ our people. Again, we are rapidly overcoming the blockages to both these imperatives.

The activities of Dubai World will greatly enhance Cape Town’s stature and preparedness for 2010 as we increase our hotel capacity, our tourism products and enhance our City and Province as the entertainment centre for 2010. I have seen Dubai and I can already see the Cape Town of the future.

But what I thank Nakheel for mostly is that in an era of Afro-pessimism they have shown confidence in Africa. They have tested the waters, they have taken the plunge and they have told the world that Cape Town, South Africa and Africa is a great destination for tourism, trade and investment. Their message has reverberated across the Middle East and as I traveled through this area for 2½ weeks, the invitations increased for me to visit more countries and the enquiries increased about investment opportunities.

In all of my meetings my dignity and pride as a South African and African, and as a Capetonian, remained intact. I did not have to beg for aid. I did not have to say: in Africa we are poor have sympathy. I did not simply have to appeal for solidarity with Africa.

For the first time we can all say with confidence that Africa is beginning to enjoy peace. In the remaining few conflicts, negotiations and reconciliation are taking place. Africa reverberates with elections with some Presidents retiring and other new ones emerging. For the first time the fruits of peace, democracy and stability are being realized.

Africa’s mineral and oil resources are being harnessed for progress and development. We can begin to utilize and develop our human capacity. We can already feel the impact of technology and information. The African economic giant is starting to emerge.

At the African World Economic Forum held in Cape Town earlier this year, delegates were surprised to hear that the average growth rate in GDP for Africa for the last financial year was 5,5%. This is unprecedented. Delegates were surprised to hear that only 3 countries in Africa had negative growth rates.

This potential is waiting to be developed. Who will help Africa develop this? It cannot only be our former colonial and imperial masters. The South African government had decided that in terms of South Africa’s Foreign policy, the Middle East is a strategic region for South Africa to be in partnership with. This, in essence, is an invitation to all of you to utilize South Africa - especially Cape Town - as your soft landing in Africa, as your springboard into Sub-Saharan Africa.

Cape Town, we all joke, is what God saw and then He designed the Jannah (Paradise). This is the place for tourism and investment. Where else would you want to do business from with Africa?

I welcome you once again and hope that in a divided world this Conference will build a bridge of economic partnership, investment, tourism and trade between Arabs and Africans, not because you feel sorry for us, but because there is money to be made in Africa.