SA, China sign investment agreements worth $14.7bn

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday that the government had signed several agreements, including memorandums of understanding, on investments amounting to $14.7 billion (R195.5bn) with China.

Various government departments signed agreements with the Chinese government in areas such as the simplification of visas, while state-owned enterprises, such as Eskom and Transnet, and private sector companies Standard Bank and Naspers also signed agreements.

The agreements were signed on the eve of the three-day 10th BRICS Summit, which opens in Johannesburg today.

“President Xi indicated that China is ready to invest, and to work with South Africa in various sectors, such as infrastructure, the ocean economy, green economy, science and technology, agriculture, environment, as well as finance,” Ramaphosa said.

He was hosting the president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, who began his state visit at the Union Buildings in Pretoria ahead of the summit.

Ramaphosa said the government recognised that, although trade figures had grown steadily over the past two years, bilateral trade had not reached its full potential, hence avenues were being explored to increase trade and identify sectors for future investment, and to promote tourism between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Eskom scored big yesterday, signing a $2.5bn (R33.2bn) term facility agreement with the China Development Bank, in a bid to plug the holes in its balance sheet.

Eskom chief executive Phakamani Hadebe said the agreement was “strategic” for the power utility both for investment and capital growth, and moved Eskom’s funding for the year from 22% to 66%.

“This is a continuation of our funding, and it moves us very close to concluding the funding for this year, because after this funding we would have covered 66% of the funding for this financial year,” he said.

“It comes at an opportune time. When we were presenting the financials, we did highlight and emphasise that there will be other transactions that will be coming in and that in another two months or so we expect to have concluded all our funding.”

• The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has agreed to give Transnet a R4bn loan, after a meeting between Ramaphosa and Xi yesterday. Transnet said the loan would be for five-and-a-half years and would boost its near-term liquidity. – African News Agency (ANA)/Reuters