The Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies and the chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Jia Qinglin witnessed the signing of contracts between twenty six South African and Chinese companies at a ceremony that took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria today. The contracts will see Chinese companies sourcing products such as mohair, bulk wine, wool, frozen fish, copper, manganese, granite blocks, ferro chrome and lobsters from South Africa to the value of R2.3 billion.
“The signing of these contracts marks the deepening of mutually beneficial economic relations between South Africa and China. It will also deliver concrete results in the form of new investments and trade partnerships in key areas of opportunities between South Africa and China products,” said Minister Davies.
Davies added that South Africa was working to position itself as the promising emerging market in the world and has a combination of a well developed business services support and dynamic investment environment with a number of global competitive advantages and opportunities.
“As an open economy we would welcome greater investment from China. We would encourage partnerships by Chinese companies to support the economic development in South Africa, build local industrial capacity and support the integration of local production value chains,” said Davies.
Bilateral trade between China and South Africa has experienced an upward trend since 2002. The total trade between the two countries is R119,7 billion and grew by two percent in 2009, as compared to R118 billion in 2008. In a period of eight years, trade has significantly grown from R23 billion in 2003 to R119,7 billion at the end of 2009. Our trade statistics depicts a trade surplus in favour of China since 2003, but this declined from R46 billion in 2008 to R22 billion in 2009. We are pleased that this is the second trade cooperation forum aimed at sourcing goods from South Africa in excess of R1.2 billion.
Qinglin said China would continue to expand imports from South Africa, particularly those value added products so as to increasingly optimise bilateral trade mix.
"The two countries should deepen two way investment," Jia said, citing South Africa's expertise in energy development, mineral exploration and manufacturing and China's advantages in textile, garment, electronics, and telecommunications and processing. China will encourage businesses with strong capacity and good credit to expand investment in South Africa's manufacturing so as to transfer technology, train staff and spur employment," added Qinglin.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Moloantoa Medupe
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 073 522 6801
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
31 March 2010
