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21 September 2006

Ireland is ready to assist South Africa in achieving the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) goals. This was said by the visiting Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Michael Martin, at a meeting with Deputy President of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Elizabeth Thabethe, in Cape Town today (Thursday).

Ten years ago, Ireland was almost at the same position as South Africa is in today with high unemployment and a lot of unsuitably skilled labour.

“We had a lot of interventions and experiences that have paved our economic growth and that we are willing to share with South Africa,” said Minister Martin.

The Deputy President will be visiting Ireland in November this year to meet with a range of people from Government, business and the higher education sector with the aim of promoting AsgiSA and the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

“One thing that seems to have worked for Ireland is the unity of purpose among Government, business and the training institutions. The training sector ensured that they developed skills directly needed by the industry. As Government we asked the industry to state what skills they needed and together we ensured the development of those skills,” continued the Irish Trade Minister.

South Africa is interested in learning more about entrepreneurship, Information Communication Technology (ICT), manufacturing and tourism among others.

“We would like to have some high powered business leaders and tertiary educators accompany us to Ireland for them to interact with their counterparts in order to see how the Irish have managed a turn around in their economic situation. I think that would be a fantastic manner of learning best practice for us all to win in the end," said the Deputy President.

Many Irish universities have a business and an industrial focus and they are backed by particular companies. This model provides ready labour for the industry and therefore foster economic growth, said Minister Martin.

“You cannot get away from investing in people if you want to succeed,” stressed the two political Principals.

The Deputy President requested the visiting minister to encourage Irish companies with business interests in South Africa, to look into sending locals to Ireland for some period for exposure as part of the JIPSA programme.

Ireland, in the 1980s, also had a graduate overseas placement programme with countries such as Japan. Ireland has benefited from such international assistance in the past and now wishes to help South Africa's economic growth attempts along the same successful road.

Enquiries: Thabang Chiloane (Spokesperson of the Deputy President)
Cell: 082 8888 783

Issued by: The Presidency
21 September 2006