The South African government is speeding up the implementation of development plans agreed upon during the state visit by President Xi Jinping of China in December last year, according to first secretary of economic and commerce for the Embassy of China in South Africa, Liang Zhao Shan.
He said some of the 26 trade agreements - worth around R100 billion (R1.4trillion) - involved financial investment while others focused on developing stronger relations through cooperation.
Most recently, R11billion has been invested by the Beijing Automobile International Corporation (BAIC) into the Coega Development Corporation’s completely knocked down automotive manufacturing plant, which broke ground in the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) near Port Elizabeth on August 30.
Construction is set to start before the end of the year and production is expected to begin by the end of 2017, with a maximum annual production capacity of 100 000 units.
“China is now focusing on project export not only product export,” Binu Pillai, Meorient International Exhibition’s chief operating officer told FTW Online.
“Projects require various components from China and South Africa and that’s the perfect partnership,” he said.
Meorient brought China Homelife/China Machinex expo to South Africa for the second time recently where some 420 Chinese manufacturers showcased a range of consumer and industrial products to buyers, traders and importers from Africa.
Doing business in Africa was not without its challenges, said Billai, “whether it’s restrictions on transferring foreign currencies, the perception of China “dumping” cheap products into markets, or an import/export imbalance in bilateral agreements.”
China has been South Africa’s biggest trading partner since 2009, said Liang Zhao Shan, investing more than US$130billion (R1.8trillion). The dti reported that by the end of 2015, trade between China and Africa had grown to more than US$200billion (R2.8trillion) per year and direct investment to around US$30billion (R419billion) – involving over 3 000 companies.
