STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY
HIFIKEPUNYE POHAMBA, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA
ON THE OCCASION OF THE OFFICIAL TALKS
BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA
AND THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
30 OCTOBER 2007 WINDHOEK



Your Excellency and Dear Brother Thabo Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa
Honourable Ministers of both South Africa and Namibia
Your Excellencies, High Commissioners of South Africa and Namibia
Esteemed Senior Government Officials of both South Africa and Namibia
Distinguished Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to once again extend a warm welcome to Your Excellency and your delegation to our country. Allow me to express our profound gratitude to you for honouring us with your visit soon after our Annual Bilateral Economic Meeting in your country. My delegation and I still hold fresh memories about the warm hospitality extended to us during our recent visit to Pretoria, as well as during the official opening of the Mata-Mata Tourism Access Facility.

At the outset, I wish to congratulate you and through you the people of South Africa on the great achievement by the Springboks who won the Rugby World Cup in Paris recently.

Your current visit is a clear testimony to the excellent bilateral and economic relations that exist between our two countries. I believe that our deliberations here today and the joint opening of the International Investor’s Conference tomorrow morning will further enhance interaction and cooperation between our two countries and peoples.

Your Excellency,

The Annual Heads of State Economic Bilateral Meeting and the Namibia/South Africa Joint Commission on Defence and Security are some of the strong pillars supporting our bilateral co-operation efforts. In this connection, I want to express our profound gratitude and appreciation for the valuable material and technical support and assistance rendered by your Government to the Namibian Defence Force. I am convinced that the recent Bilateral Economic Meeting in Pretoria has enabled us to take further practical steps in advancing our all-round interaction, particularly trade and economic co-operation between our two countries.

I wish to express my happiness with the recent opening of Tourists Access Facilities at Mata-Mata and Sendelingsdrift. These facilities will serve to increase tourist traffic between our two countries and enable our peoples in the border regions to benefit from this growing industry.

Your current visit coincides with the Namibian International Investors Conference whose opening session you have kindly agreed to co-chair with me. I thank you most sincerely for your support. For Namibia, the Conference is very important because it has the potential to transform the economic landscape in our country and indeed the wider SADC Region. We are encouraged by the high level of interest shown by the private sector in this conference. I am informed that more than 500 participants have already registered.

Your Excellency,

Our two countries will sign important co-operation agreements during this visit. These include the Agreement on Investment Promotion and Reciprocal Protection between Namibia and South Africa; the Memorandum of Understanding on Diplomatic Consultation between the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Africa and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Namibia; as well as a co-operation agreement in the area of Home Affairs and Immigration. We are looking forward to receiving some of the Namibian birth, marriage and death registration records that have been in South Africa.

You will agree with me, Comrade President, that the signing of these agreements signifies the deepening ties of friendship and co-operation between Namibia and South Africa.

It is our wish to continue with ongoing co-operation initiatives in the areas of energy and electricity generation, environment and tourism, defence and security, health and social services, labour and social welfare, sports and culture, education as well as information and broadcasting. Our relevant institutions and departments are continuing to work out the details and parameters of co-operation in these areas. In many cases, progress has already been made and we are starting to reap the benefits of these endeavours.

Your Excellency

We will count on your continued support in the establishment of Namibia’s own standards institution, in the event of the withdrawal of the South African Bureau of Standards from Namibia.

These Official Talks and other fora of interaction between the two sides provide us with good opportunities to elucidate and crystalise the issues of common interest. This will in turn enable us to identify the most effective courses of action that we must take in order to attain the results that we wish to jointly achieve.

I have no doubt that these Official Talks will be successful and their outcome will lead to the further strengthening of bilateral and economic co-operation between our two countries.

Our consultations have always been held in the spirit of mutual respect and fraternal friendship. I have no doubt that this spirit will prevail and guide these Official Talks. It is, therefore, my pleasure to wish all the Delegates to the Official Talks successful deliberations.

I thank you.