BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
21 May 2008
Prague — Food security issues need to be addressed as a matter of urgency to prevent poverty and hunger that could derail the progress of the continent.
"We have to put food security higher on the agenda in Africa. The decision by African Heads of State is that much more than we presently attribute, has to go to agriculture," Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday.
The deputy president is currently being hosted by Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus on her two-day official visit to that country.
She said Africa has experienced economic growth well above 5 percent in 2007, and it is expected such growth will reach the 6 percent mark owing to a high demand for its commodities.
However, despite these positive developments, and as the recent summit of the African Development Bank confirmed, the escalating food predicament will be disastrous for many African countries, more especially for those people living on less than one dollar a day.
The visit to the Czech Republic was aimed at reinforcing political dialogue and bilateral relations and to strengthen economic relations between South Africa and the Czech Republic.
Further, the visit aims to tighten the Czech Republic's potential participation in South Africa's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (Asgi-SA) and its sub-project, the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa).
Accordingly, Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka and Czech Academy of Science, Vaclav Paces, discussions on the issues of skills and technology transfer, closer co-operation between science institutions, and training in terms of AsgiSA and Jipsa were also tabled.
Though trade between the two countries was satisfactory, much more was possible, the deputy president said, adding that progress could be made in areas of tourism, science and technology and cultural exchanges.
With the collapse of Soviet authority in 1989, the erstwhile Czechoslovakia regained its freedom through a peaceful, so-called "Velvet Revolution."
On 1 January 1993, the country underwent a "velvet divorce" into its two national components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Czech Republic joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.
Trade figures indicate that South Africa remains the Czech Republic's biggest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa and in Africa as a whole.
Nearly 40 percent of its total trade with the region takes place with South Africa.
There has been a steady increase in trade between South Africa and the Czech Republic since 1994.
The bilateral trade for 2005 amounted to $292.8 million (approx R2.090 million), in favour of the Czech Republic with a bigger increase in the country's exports to South Africa.
South African exports are represented by 33.49 percent machinery and transport equipment, 28.5 percent raw materials (wool, synthetic fibres and paper pulp, 19.72 percent consumer goods and 10.79 percent foodstuffs).
South Africa's imports from the Czech Republic consist mainly of automatic data processing equipment, motor vehicle spares and parts, fruit, iron and steel, chrome ores and medicaments.
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