06
May
Good Morning,
As a first step, let me acknowledge the presence of Professor Olive
Shisana, CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council, which is also a
Co-Partner of the Blue Economy Core Group and this Workshop; IORA
Secretary General, Ambassador Bhagirath; Members of the IORA Troika:
High Commissioner of India to South Africa, High Commissioner
Ghanashyam; High Commissioner Designate of Australia to South Africa,
Mr McCarthy; and High Commissioner of Indonesia to South Africa, High
Commissioner Martosetomo; Professor Bawa, Co-Partner and Durban
University of Technology Vice Chancellor; Dr Attri, Chair of Indian
Ocean Studies at the Indian Ocean University in Mauritius; Commander
Tsietsi Mokhele, CEO of the South African Maritime Safety Agency;
Ambassador Matjila, Director General of the Department of
International Relations and Co-operation; Dr Sooklal, IORA Focal Point
and Deputy Director-General at DIRCO responsible for Asia and Middle
East; Dr Mayekiso, Deputy-Director General for Oceans and Coastal
Sciences at the Department of Environmental Affairs;
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to the First IORA Blue Economy Core Group Workshop on
“Promoting Fisheries and Aquaculture, and Maritime Safety and Security
Cooperation in Indian Ocean Region”.
Strategic Context of Workshop – Origin of IORA
The idea of an “Indian Ocean Cooperation Initiative” was first
mentioned by South Africa during the official visit by former
President Nelson Mandela to India in 1995, where he, in view of the
changing global geo-strategic developments stated that: “.. the
natural urge of the facts of history and geography should broaden
itself to include the concept of an Indian Ocean Rim for
socio-economic co-operation and other peaceful endeavours. Recent
changes in the international system demand that the countries of the
Indian Ocean shall become a single platform.” As a result, by early
March 1995, we had already convened a meeting to discuss the
enhancement of economic co-operation among countries of the Indian
Ocean Rim in Mauritius. Representatives from the government, business
sectors and academia, of Australia, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Sultanate
of Oman, Singapore and South Africa, known as the “Core Group States”
or M-7, attended the meeting. By 1996, the membership had doubled to
include Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Tanzania, Madagascar
and Mozambique, known as the M-14 where-after we saw the launching of
the Charter of the Organisation and the subsequent Ministerial
Meetings.
Excellencies,
The vision of the initiating partners was to create an apex Pan-Indian
Ocean Forum, in order to promote sustainable growth and balanced
development through Economic Dialogue and Cooperation. Undoubtedly,
the Organisation itself has grown from strength to strength over the
recent couple of years, with expansion in membership, increasing
interest to lead and Chair it by Member States, as well as a growing
global profile. In this regard, the leadership role played by the
current Secretary General, Ambassador Bhagirath, can directly be
correlated to the strengthened IORA we are witnessing today. His
successor will undoubtedly have big shoes to fill!
Importance of the Indian Ocean in a Regional Context
Excellencies would be aware that the Indian Ocean includes all of the
major seas in the region from the Mozambique Channel up to the Great
Australian Bight with a coastline stretching to 66,526 km in total,
shared by all littoral nations. This Ocean has set the stage for some
of history’s most ferocious and bitter battles for control of the
routes, and the territories on those routes. During the recent
celebration of 60 years of the Bandung Conference on Afro-Asian
solidarity in Indonesia, it became increasingly apparent that as much
as we have made meaningful progress, we have to deepen these gains in
order to improve our trade, cooperation and developmental prospects.
The Ocean is central to human survival; it provides humanity with a
natural barrier, providing food security and nutrition, as well as
climate regulation. For centuries, lives and livelihoods have been
entirely dependent on the Ocean for food, recreation, transport and
economic transaction. Indeed, the time is here to maximise the benefit
from these facets of our Oceanic Resources. In addition to its
strategic significance, the Indian Ocean is full of natural resources,
making it an obvious natural attraction not only for regional players
but for Dialogues Partners such as the US and China as well.
Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas
of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India and Western Australia. With an estimated
40% of the world’s offshore oil production coming from the Indian
Ocean, we are aware that the Indian Ocean is also seen as one of the
world’s great maritime highways, with approximately 50% of the world’s
merchant shipping passing through the Strait of Malacca.
It is no doubt that the strategic seaports dotted across Asia are
going to play a decisive, vital and economic, role in the coming years
due to their multipurpose nature. Some of these ports are critical
choking points for the international sea lines of communications while
others are gateways to the land locked regions.
The geography of the Indian Ocean and the littoral states can be
divided into five major strategic categories, that of Strategic water
access ways and Choking Points, Multi-purpose Strategic Ports,
International Sea Lines of Communication, Land based trade corridors
connected to coastlines, as well as Strategic Islands.
South Africa’s Priorities in IORA
With South Africa due to Chair IORA from 2017 to 2019, it will seek to
build on the successive leadership of India, Australia and Indonesia,
as preceding Chairs. India’s Chairship outlined six priority areas for
IORA, namely Maritime Security and Safety, Trade and Investment
Facilitation, Fisheries Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Academic,
Science and Technological Co-operation, as well as Tourism
Promotion and Cultural Exchanges. With Australia’s Chairship, we saw
the summation of the priority areas pioneered by India into the Blue
Economy or Ocean Economy, together with the common thread of promoting
Women Development and mainstreaming Business to Business linkages
within IORA.
It is patent, Excellencies, that the Ocean Economy or Blue Economy is
the future of IORA wherein marine economic activity is emerging as a
common source of growth, innovation and job creation for the Indian
Ocean Region. The Blue Economy offers a model of development that is
ocean-based rather than solely land based, and better suited to the
challenges and opportunities of Indian Ocean Rim economies. It
highlights the role biodiversity, including marine life and
ecosystems, plays in supporting marine economic activity and enhancing
food security. In this context, at a domestic level, South Africa has
its own strategy, which was launched by our President in October 2014,
for the Ocean Economy, as encapsulated in Operation Phakisa, spanning
the priorities of Marine Manufacturing and Marine Transport,
Aquaculture, Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, as well as Marine
Protection and Governance. We aim to optimise this convergence of the
domestic priorities and the IORA priorities, as an area of high value
potential.
Africa’s Development and IORA
Africa, and Africa’s development is also undoubtedly inextricably
linked to developments in the Indian Ocean, with the entire Eastern
and Southern seaboards of the continent bordering on the Indian Ocean.
South Africa’s key focus areas for its Chairship will be undertaken in
partnership with the African members of IORA. Mindful of the 20th Year
Anniversary milestone of IORA in March 2017, a year which we will
share with Indonesia in the Chair, our preliminary thoughts on our
Chairship priorities include: the Ocean Economy, Research Development
and Innovation, Engagement with Dialogue Partners, Maritime Security,
and Civil Society participation in IORA, in close co-ordination with
the African Membership of IORA. South Africa and SADC’s strategy with
respect to the Indian Ocean Region is embedded in the AIMS (African
Integrated Maritime Strategy), which is a multidimensional approach
and perspective on maritime security, governance, and Africa’s
seaborne development potential.
Excellencies, not only did Heads of State and Governments adopt
Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy and Plan of Action at the 22nd
Summit in January 2014, but additionally, Africa’s leaders declared
the 2015-2025 decade as the “Decade of African Seas and Oceans”,
giving us a clear Continental framework.
Context of Inaugural Workshop in Durban
Excellencies, having set out the strategic political vision we had in
the establishment of IORA, having outlined the potential it holds for
our respective countries and how we intend to optimise it leading up
to our Chairship, it is apt to contextualise our meeting today. This
inaugural IORA Blue Economy Core Group Workshop on Promoting Fisheries
and Aquaculture; and Maritime Safety and Security Cooperation in
Indian Ocean Region, stems out of our identified need as South Africa,
to give support to the aforementioned strategic policy objectives by
underpinning them with academic cooperation and researcher exchanges
in the areas of blue economic growth.
The Core Group thus provides support for exchange of ideas among
Academic Experts, Researchers and Government Representatives in the
form of several workshops to promote joint activities related to the
blue economy, especially Maritime Safety and Security; Aquaculture and
Food Security in the short term and in the longer term over the next
three years, the focus will be expanded to include Shipping, and Oil
and Gas Exploration. We are grateful for the support of Australia for
this inaugural workshop in particular, which has come on board with
co-finance. We are aware that China is contemplating hosting the
sequel workshop as a Dialogue Partner while India, Sri Lanka, Oman,
Indonesia, and the USA will contribute in various ways. We appeal for
further support from all members of IORA in this regard.
Excellencies, the outcome of this workshop taking place today and
tomorrow, together with other planned Regional Workshops will feed
directly into the inaugural Blue Economy IORA Ministerial Conference,
scheduled to take place in September later this year and graciously
hosted by the Government of Mauritius. It will also feed into the
long-term three year time period of anchoring the Blue Economy Core
Group as mentioned earlier. The September Ministerial Conference will
be the first of its kind, bringing together a strong Business
Contingent, Academia and Policy Makers within the context of IORA and
its Dialogue Partners.
The main objectives of the First IORA Blue Economy Ministerial
Conference, taking place in September later this year will be to
understand and evolve the concept of Blue Economy in order to generate
employment and Sustainable Development in Member States of IORA.
In this context, the Program for the next two days is notably rigorous
and far-reaching. In addition, I note that you will also be receiving
a presentation on the Second Indian Ocean International Expedition
which constitutes the most comprehensive empirical research on the
subject of the Indian Ocean. As I inaugurate this Workshop,
Excellencies, let me leave you with two key questions we need to
address, which should form the background of the proceedings as
follows:
1. We need to first and foremost address how we as Member States
ensure that we act as a collective in harnessing the Ocean Economy in
order to ensure that our respective domestic priorities are
complementary to Regional and Sub-Regional aims and objectives.
2. We need to address the question of how we harness the presence
of IORA’s Dialogue Partners in taking forward the optimisation of the
Ocean Economy. How do we and our Dialogue Partners get to mutually
realise value from IORA that is mutually beneficial for our people?
More practically, how do we share experiences and best practices,
address challenges and risks together; taking into account the need
for sharing of expertise, technology transfer, research development
and innovation initiatives, enhancing business to business contacts
across the spectrum including SMMEs and Women led enterprises,
encouraging joint research as well as strengthening academic
exchanges.
Excellencies, I declare this Workshop Open, and in so doing, with a
sense of urgency, wish to emphasise the need for Action oriented
outcomes.
I Thank You
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION