China’s-SA trade tops $204bn

CHINA and South Africa have a long history of mutually respectful and beneficial relations, said Consul General of China Jin Ling, who visited the UWC recently.

He said that China has had strong relations with Africa, and in particular, South Africa, for many years and looked to building on this.

“China-Africa trade volume reached $204.19billion last year and more than 3700 Chinese enterprises are investing and developing their business in Africa,” he said.

China-South Africa relations “triple-jumped” from the status of “partnership” to “strategic partnership” to “comprehensive strategic partnership”, said Ling. China had become South Africa’s largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years, and the country’s most important source of foreign investment and tourism.

Last year bilateral trade reached $43.55 billion while direct investment from China to South Africa had reached more than $25 billion, creating more than 40000 jobs locally.

“China-South Africa relations are strategic and all-round mutually beneficial, and are supported by four major co-operation platforms: the Forum on China–Africa Co-operation; BRICS (Brasil, Russia, India, China, South Africa); the Belt and Road Initiative; and the South-South Co-operative initiative.

“We’re committed to being South Africa’s true friend and most reliable co-operation partner for economic and social transformation and development. We’ll support South Africa to become the locomotive and production base to drive African industrialisation and modernisation, and fully support South Africa to become a pilot demonstration country for connecting the Belt and Road construction within Africa,” said Lin.

UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tyrone Pretorius said he was pleased that Lin visited the campus to discuss China-South Africa relations.

“Since 2013, with the establishment of the Belt and Road Initiative, many infrastructure developments have been completed that benefit millions of Africans in a wide variety of countries,” Pretorius said.

UWC has worked with China for many years. Unesco Chair of Hydrogeology, Professor Yongsin Xu, has been with UWC since the early 2000s.