South African Government Briefs 12 of 2012

SADC remains the most important forum through which our common concerns in the southern African region can be addressed.

• The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organisation. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states. It complements the role of the African Union (AU).
• The SADC Common Agenda is based on various principles, such as development orientation; subsidiarity; market integration and development; facilitation and promotion of trade and investment and variable geometry (which allows for asymmetrical trade liberalisation based on the level of economic development in each country)..
• The Summit is also scheduled to discuss the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP). If endorsed, this 15-year plan will guide development in key sectors such as energy, transport  (including maritime corridors), information and communications technology, tourism and water.

Consistent and long-term economic and social policies remain a priority for the region.

• SADC member states are committed to the realisation of a sustainable socio-economic development path. This is facilitated by the frameworks for SADC regional integration: the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO).
• The RISDP and SIPO will assist the region to create a promising future and stability, peace, security, democracy, prosperity and equity. Member states, through SADC National Committees, will be key implementers of these plans.
• The RISDP points out the region’s priority intervention areas and maps out general goals and targets for the next fifteen years. The goals include trade, economic liberalisation and development, infrastructure support for regional integration, sustainable food security and human and social development.
• Further the RISDP identifies cross-sectoral intervention areas, including combating the HIV and AIDS pandemic, promoting gender equality and development, science and technology, information and communication technologies, environment and sustainable development, as well as private sector development.
• The RISDP also emphasises that good political, economic and corporate governance are prerequisites for sustainable socio-economic development.
• To sustain the progress made by the SADC states towards equal representation of women in political and decision-making positions. We encourage all member states to develop strategies towards the achievement of the 50/50 gender parity by 2015. 

Integrated SADC infrastructure will accelerate investment and trade in the region.

• The RIDMP as the region’s first comprehensive infrastructure master plan will lead future cooperation and planning of regional infrastructure development.
• Infrastructure development is essential for attracting investment into SADC, creating market access, improving competitiveness and promoting intra-and inter-regional trade as well as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
• The RIDMP will guide SADC’s implementation of coordinated, integrated, trans-boundary infrastructure networks in the six priority sectors of energy, transport, tourism, information technology, meteorology and water.
• The identified priority infrastructure projects will be implemented at a cost of approximately US $500 billion with transport, energy and water taking the major share of the funding.
• To attract potential investors, a RIDMP infrastructure investment conference will be held early in 2013 with road shows planned to Asia, Europe and the United States.
• The RIDMP is in line with the AU's Programme for Infrastructure Development of Africa (PIDA) and will contribute towards the proposed tripartite Free Trade Area made up of SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).

Africa’s Trilateral Free Trade Areas (T-FTAs) will boost the continent’s competitiveness.

• Through the consolidation of the FTAs of SADC, EAC and COMESA, we will build and sustain more diverse markets.
• A single FTA will open borders to approximately half of the continent with a combined population of approximately 700 million people and a gross domestic product of US $875 billion from 26 countries.
• The free movement of goods and services between the three regions signals a major step towards the economic well-being and growth on the continent.
• The T-FTA will allow African member countries to trade without import quotas, tariffs and on better terms. Negotiations to establish the T-FTA are well underway with operationalisation aimed at 2017.
• South Africa is proud to lead the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) High Level Sub-Committee on Infrastructure whose primary objective is to contribute towards intra-Africa trade through the construction of road and rail infrastructure in the North-South Corridor which includes the SADC, EAC and COMESA regions.
• We are already benefiting from the SADC Free Trade Areas with producers and consumers not paying import duty on an estimated 85 per cent of all trade on goods between participating member states.

• The SADC region continues to take critical steps towards a peaceful region – successful elections were held in the last year in Lesotho, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
• South Africa commends political parties in Zimbabwe for their cooperation in implementing the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and calls on the relevant parties to finalise the Constitution-making process and thereafter subject it to a referendum.
• South Africa is concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the eastern DRC. We remain committed to assisting the DRC in its efforts to consolidate democracy and overcome challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and development.
• We applaud the parties in Madagascar for making significant progress in the implementation of the SADC-endorsed Roadmap on Madagascar. We call on all stakeholders to fully implement this Roadmap to create an enabling environment for holding credible, free and fair elections.
• South Africa will continue to engage the authorities of Swaziland towards the resolution of their domestic challenges.
• South Africa calls on political parties in Angola to commit to peaceful and fair elections on 31 August 2012.

‘GO! Be a tourist in your own country!’

• Being a tourist in South Africa enriches, excites, stimulates and gives you time to reconnect with family and friends. It’s an emotional benefit and an investment in self.
• It gives South Africans the opportunity to explore a destination that millions the world over dream of coming to – and it’s right here on your doorstep. It’s a place for extended holiday breaks or for short day trips
• South African Tourism encourages the trade to take domestic tourism seriously; to target products, experiences and marketing campaigns at domestic tourists and to creatively manage products and services to meet the specific consumer needs of domestic tourists.
• The It’s Here, Vaya Mzansi campaign is an industry-wide campaign that relies on collaboration and partnership from the wider industry for success and to grow domestic leisure travel to meet targets.

Vaya Mzansi : It’s Here.

• The campaign website: www.vayamzansi.co.za, offers more than 100 special offers and leisure deals to domestic tourists. They include experiences across South Africa that offer excellent value for money.
• South African Tourism has partnered with more than 50 tourism companies in South Africa to create discount vouchers ranging from tour-operator services, accommodation and experiences including wine-tasting, canopy tours and hiking. 30 000 of these discount vouchers will be distributed at the Getaway show taking place at the Coca-Cola Dome in Northgate. These vouchers are only redeemable during Tourism Month (1 to 30 September 2012).
• South Africans are warm, open, friendly, genuine, and hospitable. Experience this when you take a trip and give it to others when they visit your home town.

Sustainable and responsible tourism policies are an expression of our tourism policy.

• According to the 1996 White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa: “Responsible tourism is not a luxury for South Africa. It is an absolute necessity if South Africa is to emerge as a successful international competitor, thus committing the tourism sector to pursuing a policy of Responsible Tourism”.
• The August 2002 conference on “Responsible Tourism in Destinations”, ran parallel to the World Summit on Sustainable Development and grew out of South Africa’s work on responsible tourism guidelines which resulted in the Cape Town Declaration being ratified by delegates from 20 countries.
• Since 2002, the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (FEDHASA) has been running the Imvelo Awards for Responsible Tourism. It has the full support of government.
• In 2011 the National Department of Tourism developed the National Minimum Standards for Responsible Tourism which aims to promote the implementation of Responsible Tourism principles in tourism businesses, harmonise sustainable tourism certification programmes and set a national benchmark for tourism businesses to aspire to.
• The new draft Tourism Bill aims to provide for the development and promotion of sustainable tourism for the social, economic and environmental benefit of South African citizens and for the enjoyment of all its residents and foreign visitors.

Domestic tourism is an essential contributor to the growth of tourism economies.

• The Domestic Tourism Strategy launched this year aims to provide more affordable and accessible tourism experiences for the domestic market.
• The strategy is supported by the slogan: "What you are looking for its here in South Africa”. This is intended to increase domestic tourism's contribution to 60%, of the overall tourism sector contribution to the GDP, by 2020.
• The strategy also addresses issues of geographic spread and seasonality, to increase the number of first-time domestic holiday travellers, the number of leisure travellers as well as the number of domestic holiday trips from 4 million in 2009 to 9 million in 2020.

• In further growing our country as a destination of choice, the Department of Tourism has developed the Culture and Heritage as well as the Rural Tourism strategies.
• Culture and Heritage products are the fastest emerging competitive niché products in the domestic and international markets.
• South Africa’s competitiveness improved from 66th to 55th out of 139 countries that are rich and natural and cultural resources (Source: 2011 World Tourism Index)
• Sustainable development will be achieved if the beneficiaries or people, whose land, culture and natural resources are used for tourism, benefit from such use in a meaningful way.
• The Rural Tourism Strategy is intended to address government’s objectives of job creation and people development as many tourist attractions are based in rural areas.

• The Tourism Greening and Climate Change programme initiated  by the Department of Tourism aims to promote efficient use of natural resources.
• The department in partnership with Eskom, the departments of Environmental Affairs and of Water Affairs, conducted resource efficiency and tourism greening workshops in the 2011/12 financial year. The aim of these workshops was to educate and create awareness of resource efficiency within the tourism sector.
• The dti, together with stakeholders in the sector also developed a National Tourism and Climate Change Response Programme and Action Plan to ensure that the tourism sector responds effectively to the challenge of climate change.
• The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the implementation of energy efficiency measures is a major focus of the sector’s Climate Change Response Programme. A brochure on tourism and climate change has been developed to create awareness for industry role players.
• The National Minimum Standards for Responsible Tourism also supports the implementation of energy efficiency by tourism establishments through its environmental criteria.