REMARKS BY AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS TREASURER-GENERAL MATHEWS PHOSA AT THE ANC's PROGRESSIVE BUSINESS FORUM (PBF) HOSTED LUNCH IN HONOUR OF THE RT HON, THE LORD MAYOR OF THE CITY OF LONDON, ALDERMAN MICHAEL BEAR AND HIS DELEGATION OF OFFICIALS AND BUSINESS LEADERS IN SANDTON TODAY (1 SEPTEMBER 2011). AMONG THE GUESTS WAS BRITISH HIGH COMMISSIONER TO SOUTH AFRICA, DAME NICOLA BREWER
The British High Commissioner, Lord Mayor, other dignitaries, friends and comrades:
1. Let me thank all of you for being here today-and let's make this a real working lunch aimed at cementing the business relationship between South Africa and the United Kingdom.
2. Let us all make our own individual contributions towards our aim of doubling the bi-lateral trade between South Africa and the UK by 2015. It is in the interest of both our countries that we do so.
3. My own relationship with the United Kingdom goes back to the early days of my Premiership in Mpumalanga when DFID funded a unit in my office that did fantastic work in allowing me to manage the transition between the pre-1994 provincial administrations to a democratic dispensation.
4. Since I became Treasurer General in 2007, I have also been able to use the ANC's Progressive Business Forum to interact substantially with business leaders and businessmen, here and abroad and frequently in the United Kingdom.