Industrial cooperation
“The development of this SEZ is intended to accelerate economic growth, attract foreign and domestic direct investment, expand the manufacturing sector and mineral beneficiation, as well as create employment in the region,” said South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.
Ning told Chinafrica that for the project, his company can apply for funding from the China-africa Development Fund (CADFUND) or the China-africa Fund for Industrial Capacity Cooperation. Both of them were established by China in 2006 and 2015 respectively to support more Chinese companies to invest in the continent.
China and South Africa complement each other well in industrial capacity cooperation, said Wang Fuqiang, Vice President of Shenzhen Hoi Mor Resources. “The Musina SEZ has the advantage of rich natural resources and enjoys South African Government’s preferential policies in tax and foreign investment, while our company has the leading metallurgical technology and equipment, and [our products enjoy] huge market demand,” he explained.
But it is not only South Africa that China is now deeply involved with, but the continent as whole. Africa’s industrialization and agricultural modernization have a focus on financing and investment cooperation, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi while delivering a work report at the Coordinators’ Meeting of the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on July 29, 2016 in Beijing.
“Investment cooperation has become a new way of boosting China-africa cooperation, and it’s a mutually beneficial cooperation model,” said Wang. “It helps speed up Africa’s industrialization and improve its independent development capacity, while bringing Chinese equipment, technologies and products to African countries via industrial capacity cooperation,” he added.
Egypt’s Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Mohamed Edrees told Chinafrica that the industrial development cooperation mentioned by Wang is something most African economies are looking for. He said there is now a realization in Africa that to achieve