Ibarretxe during his lecture (J.B.)

Prior to the meeting, he met Nakedi Phosa, the SA governing party's leading economic adviser. Phosa announced he would be visiting the Basque Country soon to study the region's economic model.

At the helm of the democratic transition in South Africa, Phosa was recently named by the African National Congress party as one of the top men responsible for designing the economic strategy of the forthcoming SA government.

After the meeting Phosa announced that an ANC-backed delegation would visit the Basque Country next year to explore possible economic cooperation projects in areas like industrial development, the energy industry and the social or cooperative-based economy, features in which he said he was particularly interested

Following his encounter with Phosa, the Basque regional president spoke to a large group of leading South African businessmen at the behest of the Business Unity South Africa association. Introducing Ibarretxe was Roelf Meyer, former SA Minister of Defence & Constitutional Affairs who served in the government that helmed the transition from apartheid to democracy and in Nelson Mandela's first government.

Ibarretxe used the lecture to give fifty or so businessmen a description of how the Basque economy had fared in recent years, identifying what he felt were the reasons behind a success story that has seen the region more than double its real per capita income in two decades, multiply its GDP fivefold since 1986, surpass by about 40 per cent the EU-27 average and settling into position behind Luxembourg and Ireland, reduce unemployment levels from 20 per cent to a situation with virtually full employment, multiply investment in R&D fourfold and, above all, move up to third position behind Ireland and Norway in the Human Development Index.

For the regional president, the keys to this "spectacular performance" were self-government and the kind of public policies it had made possible, and the region's gradual integration into the European economy. He stressed the benefits of a "clearly defined" industrial policy with "a broad consensus" and the "decision to go for an industrial future" that had "undoubtedly" been one of the distinguishing features of the regional government in recent years.

During his speech, Ibarretxe also touched on the decision taken in the 1990s to structure industry into "strategic clusters" designed to improve competitive levels all round. He also stressed the power industry's role in transforming the Basque Country into a home for some of the world's leading producers of electricity. Renewable energy firms in the region were, in his view, even now beginning major international expansion.

Another major milestone in the transformation of the Basque economy was, in Ibarretxe's view, the creation of the Basque science, technology and innovation network and, in particular, its thriving technology centres.

Internationalization

According to Ibarretxe, the regional government now had a double objective: to get up to speed in Europe on R&D and innovation expenditure in terms of GDP and make the region a benchmark in innovation while maintaining industry's place in the economy in terms of GDP and employment.

The regional government aims to propitiate an R&D revolution in local industry, orienting it towards products of greater added value and helping to bring new economic sectors into being to concentrate on areas like the biosciences and nanotechnologies.

It was also looking to upsize Basque business groups essentially by stimulating their internationalization, which explained why in recent years the Basque Country had witnessed the "deployment of a clear multi-location strategy."

"Access to emerging markets with enormous potential, the requirements of increasingly global clients and the need to face up to local competition are just some of the reasons why our businesses have taken to opening factories throughout the world. More than 60 Basque business groups have begun to turn into small multinationals, a phenomenon the Basque authorities are doing their best to encourage," said Ibarretxe.

These relatively recent developments had made the Basque Country into an "extraordinary economic platform for foreign firms looking to access the Spanish and European markets."
 
Ibarretxe then assured his audience that South Africa was a "strategic partner" for Basque firms. "We have an amazing opportunity to work together on business projects all over Africa," he added.

Ibarretxe also stressed that, in the radical economic makeover of the Basque Country, they were hoping to "promote economic growth while assuring greater social equilibrium." This was the aim of Basques living in the region and for Basque people and businesses in other parts of the world alike. A good example of this commitment was Guipúzcoa-based coach-maker Irizar, with its plans for development in South Africa.

After the talk, the businessmen present showed great interest in the potential for cooperation between South Africa and the Basque region and in finding out how the Basque Country had managed to reduce unemployment levels and transform an economy with a traditional industrial base into a technology- and science-based economy.

Regional president during his visit to Irizar facilities (J.B.)

Irizar

Before the talk that took him to South Africa, Ibarretxe had visited Irizar's South African factory, in Pretoria.

The Irizar group has been operating in South Africa on its own since 2004 from an 8,000-square-metre parts assembly factory in PKD produced at Irizar Brazil. Top Irizar management are currently working to consolidate the group's business interests in southern Africa.

A company spokesman in South Africa said yesterday Irizar coaches offered cutting-edge European technology. This year alone, the group had sold a record 125 coaches and in 2009 was looking to launch the absolute state-of-the-art coach in the country, as part of the long-term plan to consolidate its leadership and provide high quality products for the forthcoming World Cup which South Africa is to host in 2010.

Azkarraga and the President of Human Rights Commission (JB)

Meanwhile, Basque regional minister for Justice Joseba Azkarraga met the South Africa Human Rights Commission chairman Jody Kollapen in Pretoria.
 
At the end of the meeting, Azkarraga declared that the lesson to be drawn from South Africa is that conflicts cause deep, collective social wounds and that what he described as "independent projects" were needed to solve such conflicts. Promoting the values of human rights, through education in particular, was a pressing need.

Azkarraga also said it was important to be impartial in education, to avoid "slanting everything towards the victims." Unjust situations needed to be dealt with "positively", so as not to promote claims of victimization or lasting bitterness. "Justice," he added "has to be solidly established, basically to safeguard the future."

In Johannesburg, the regional minister met the President of the country's Constitutional Court, Catherine O'Regan.