Eight years after China and South Africa forged diplomatic
relations, the two leading developing countries now set to further
boost the ties to spur mutual trade and investment, and to jointly
push agenda of the developing world, especially Africa, in the
international arena.
This emerges ahead of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to
South Africa on Wednesday, part of his seven-nation tour to
Africa
Wen, the first Chinese premier visiting South Africa since 1998,
will hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki and other leading
political figures on bilateral and international issues, meet local
entrepreneurs and attend a forum on Sino-South African trade and
investment during his two-day stay in Cape Town.
South Africa's Foreign Ministry has announced that during Wen's
meeting with Mbkei, they would discuss and cosign an agreement on
"deepening the strategic partnership" between the two
countries.
"This symbolizes that both China and South Africa are keen to
boost collaborative relations that has enjoyed smooth development
since 1998," said Liu Guijin, the Chinese ambassador to South
Africa.
Liu said the two countries first defined their relationship as a
"partnership" in 2000, further agreed to upgrade it as "strategic
partnership" in 2004.
"As important players in the developing world, China and South
Africa hold similar views in key international issues, such as WTO
(World Trade Organization) negotiations and market access," Liu
said. "We need to cooperate more closely and in even broader
areas."
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad also said Wen's
visit comes at a very important time "when we are trying to
consolidate South-South cooperation which aims to increase market
access, trade and investment."
"China shares similar positions with us with regard of the
reform of global economic system, which is a key element in South
Africa's multi-lateral agenda and China has potential to be
effective in this regard," he said.
Both countries, together with Mexico and Brazil as leading
developing countries, will attend a summit of the Group of Eight
(G8) industrialized nations in Russia next month.
The meeting between Wen and Mbeki will provide an opportunity
for the two countries to prepare "a coherent 'South' approach" on
issues to be discussed at the G8 summit, such as energy security,
climate change, health and education, Pahad said.
They are also expected to discuss sluggish WTO negotiations
since South Africa is chairing the G-20 bloc of developing
countries that has continuously urged wealthy countries to tear
down market barriers. China chaired the G-20 forum last year.
"In this regard, both South Africa and China have synergistic
views on the reform and strengthening of the international trading
and financial system," Pahad said.
Other topics will include reforms of the United Nations, nuclear
issues on the Korean Peninsula and in Iran, and progress of the
one-year-old New Africa Asia Strategic Partnership (NAASP), in
which China plays active and vital roles, he said.
Mbeki will likely discuss with Wen on how China's increasing
presence in Africa can help accelerate the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD), a pan-African program launched by
Mbeki and other African leaders with aims to end poverty,
corruption and bad governance on the continent to eventually
realize "African Renaissance."
Wen has visited Egypt, Ghana, the Republic of Congo and Angola,
and will go to Tanzania and Uganda.
His visit, less than two months after Chinese President Hu
Jintao's African tour and ahead of a China-Africa summit later this
year, is seen as the latest effort of Beijing to reinforce its
traditional friendship and reciprocal cooperation with the
continent.
Pahad said massive industrialization and economic growth of
China, now the world's seventh-largest economy and among the
fastest growing, "hold significant opportunities for regeneration
of African continent because China's new Africa policy shows
greater interest in Africa than ever before."
Bilateral trade high on agenda
Trade and investment between China and South Africa will be high
on agenda when the two countries' leaders meet, the officials
said.
With South Africa being China's largest trading partner in
Africa for years, volumes of bilateral trade reached US$7.27
billion last year, increasing by 23 percent compared with 2004.
Main commodities traded include garment, electronic products, ore
and chemicals.
The figure may climb to US$8 billion this year, Liu Guijin
said.
"Clearly the figures in percentage are good. But in the context
of China's massive economic growth and its involvement into the
world trading system, we believe there is much more we can do
between our two countries to increase this percentage considerably
higher," Pahad said.
South Africa has expressed its concern over trade imbalance in
favor of China, insufficient Chinese investment into South Africa,
and the influx of Chinese textile products into local market, which
according to South African textile industry and trade unions has
been a heavy blow to the local industry.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said late last month that China
was considering to self restrain textile exports to South
Africa.
Pahad said the two countries could explore business
opportunities in various fields, such as energy, mining and
mining-related technology, engineering, financial services,
bio-technology, infrastructure development and construction, agro
processing and tourism.
He said the visit of Wen could also be used by Pretoria to seek
China's help in its ambitious Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative (AsgiSA), which aims to halve poverty and unemployment
by 2014 through maintaining a 6 percent growth of economy.
"This visit will be an opportunity for us to discuss with China
on how to attract direct investment from China," he said.
He said South Africa can learn from China in dealing with
poverty, pollution, energy consumption and other problems
associated with economic growth.
"We hope that Chinese experience will be useful for us to see
what we can use to ensure we can have sustainable development," he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2006)