South Africa will host the 2015 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit from December 4-5 at the Sandton Convention Centre where 50 African Union (AU) member states will examine ways of deepening economic and political relations between the second largest economy in the world and one of the fastest growing regions in the world.
Since the last FOCAC conference in 2012, trade between China and Africa has grown to R1.8 billion from a 2012 baseline of R1.2 billion. Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies has however emphasised the need to address the widening balance of trade gap - which stands at R -289 billion - by moving away from the trading of primary commodities towards the exporting of value-added products.
