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Johannesburg - Business relations between Turkey and South Africa have helped the country to achieve certain goals set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said on Thursday.
"The activities of the South African Turkish Business Association (Satba) gives substance to the National Development Plan," he said at a Satba awards ceremony in Johannesburg.
"This National Development Plan urges that businesses at large be committed more closely to international relations. It is for this reason we welcome and encourage the kind of interactions that this business association facilitates."
He said that by providing opportunities to increase trade and investment ties between Turkey and South Africa, Satba was making an important contribution to reducing poverty, unemployment and inequality in South Africa.
"Associations such as this one remind us that international relations are not conducted at a state level. They are conducted at a social level, at a cultural level and more importantly at a business level," he said.
"It is not enough for governments to develop cordial and beneficial relationships - it is important too that economic players in their respective countries develop strong ties of co-operation."
Radebe said there had been a debate about the respective roles of the state and the private sector in stimulating and driving economic activity.
"This was most pronounced in the discussions around nationalisation that preceded our (the ANC's) national conference in Mangaung in December," he said.
"Our conference confirmed the ANC's firm commitment to a mixed economy in which both the public and private sectors play a robust role in economic growth and development."
Radebe said the conference did not seek to diminish the role of the private sector in the economy.
"For our country to succeed, the private sector needs to grow significantly, supported by the actions of a strong and capable state."
At the event, Gauteng premier Nomvuka Mokonyane praised the relations between the two countries, and used the example of the new Turkish mosque in Midrand as an example of Turkey's positive impact in the country.
"We all know that as we travel in the five-lane roads that we are now tolling in our province (and) as you drive towards Pretoria you can see a huge mosque, the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere," she said.
"It was constructed out of the selflessness of the Turkish community. That site is not just a mosque for (Transport) MEC Ismail Vadi's (Islamic) dress code, it is also a facility that we are able to utilise for conferencing and community development."
She said South Africans had to embrace the NDP.
"It may not be perfect but it is the first tool of its kind that shapes what can be a better South Africa."
