Pretoria - South Africa has rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Union Buildings in Pretoria where he is meeting President Jacob Zuma.
President Xi is on a state visit to the country ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit which starts on Friday.
President Zuma and President Xi appeared at the steps of the historic building for a procession. The Union Buildings has been draped with the Chinese and South African national flags.
A brass band gave renditions of both countries' anthems while the Heads of State stood facing them in the scorching afternoon sun.
The traditional 21-gun salute, reserved for Heads of State, and a guard of honour then followed as a beaming President Zuma welcomed President Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan to the seat of government.
Following the renditions of the anthems, the two leaders went inside for a tete-a-tete meeting.
The two leaders are expected to discuss increasing marine cooperation‚ infrastructure development and human resources cooperation.
Pretoria has indicated that it will also present a project book to China which includes key sectors within the priority areas, which are among others, energy, infrastructure, industrialisation and agriculture.
President Zuma and President Xi are expected to brief the media after the meeting which will see a large number of agreements being signed from government, state owned enterprises and the private sector in various fields of collaboration between the two countries.
Total trade between South Africa and China experienced an upward trajectory since 2009, growing from R118 billion to R271 billion by the end of 2013.
While there is a trade imbalance between China and South Africa, both countries have implemented various mechanisms to address these discrepancies.
These mechanisms include the Inter-Ministerial Joint Working Group, RSA-PRC Bi-National Commission, Five-to-Ten Year Strategic Programme for Cooperation and the Strategic Dialogue. - SAnews.gov.za
