Beijing - The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China says it sees South Africa as an important and strategic trade partner, and wants to deepen relations between the two countries.
Deputy Director General in the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Jiachang Cao, said this while addressing a business seminar at the South African Expo in China on Thursday. He was speaking through a translator.
China -- which together with South Africa form part of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc -- is South Africa’s biggest trading partner and a significant investor in the South African economy.
Jiachang said that despite the global financial meltdown, increasing trade between the two nations has not stopped.
This year marks 15 years of China-SA strategic relations, with both countries sharing a long history of friendship and collaboration.
China was also supportive of development in the country and the continent, Jiachang said.
South Africa places emphasis on value-added trade, as opposed to the country being merely a source of raw materials.
Jiachang further added that the Chinese government was encouraging business to invest in South Africa.
South Africa is home to several Chinese companies that do business in South Africa, such as Baosteel Resources SA, Sanyu Southern Africa and PMG Mining.
Jiachang said there was a need for trade ties between the two countries to be improved.
Chinese investments have been mainly focused on metals (at around R3.8 billion) followed by chemicals, food and tobacco, consumer electronics and automotives.
Jiachang referred to South Africa as a “strong leading force”, saying that both countries were influential developing countries.
Also speaking during the last leg of the three investment seminars hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) in China, Chief Director of Investment Promotion at the dti, Yunnus Hoosen, said South Africa -- the biggest economy in Africa -- was a competitive investment destination, which also featured a liberal trade policy.
Deputy Minister of the dti, Elizabeth Thabethe, called on Chinese companies to invest in South Africa.
“South Africa is ideally positioned for access to SADC [Southern African Development Community], with a combined market of over 250 million people,” she said on Thursday.
Thabethe informed the seminar that South Africa had adopted the National Infrastructure Plan, which will transform the economic landscape while creating jobs.
“Government will, over the three years from 2013/14, invest R827 billion in the building of new and the upgrading of existing infrastructure,” she said.
In its white paper on “China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation" -- published at the end of August -- China says: “The Chinese government encourages enterprises and financial institutions to participate in African infrastructure construction, including transportation, communications and electric power projects, in a variety of different ways.”
In 2012, Chinese enterprises completed construction contracts worth US$40.83 billion in Africa, an increase of 45% over 2009. - SAnews.gov.za
