South Africa has had 25 years of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
This union with the Asian nation came to be on January 1, 1998. As a result, China has become SA’s largest global trader.
"Throughout the past 25 years, the two countries have deepened their wide-ranging bilateral relations, which have since been elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and underpinned by a new 10-Year Strategic Programme of Cooperation," said the SA government.
It went on to say that regular interaction between the nations occurs at many official levels, including State Visits and high-level engagements; collaboration across different government ministries; Parliament; commercial entities; and interpersonal relationships.
"The bilateral trade grew exponentially over the years, increasing from less than R1 billion in 1998 to the current levels of R544 billion in 2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. South Africa is also China’s number one trading partner in Africa.”
Speaking at the launch of the book “Xi Jinping and Thriving China-South Africa Relations,” written by Prof Paul Zilungisele Tembe, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said that the countries’ relations should help support the realisation of Agenda 2063 (Africa's development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development over a 50-year period) to reduce the economic marginalisation of the continent’s people.
"It has been a long journey over the 25 years of South Africa - China relations, and most certainly also over the past 10 years since President Xi Jinping first undertook his visit to South Africa.
"Many in South Africa are very familiar with Chinese trading malls around the country, which have opened up, among others, affordable electronics for various household uses. These Chinese trading malls employ a significant number of people, helping reduce our high unemployment figure,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula stated that it is critical for South Africa to investigate how to establish South African trading hubs in China in order to promote South African manufacturing and services.
“Historically, South Africa has been reliant on mineral resources to boost our economy. Part of the areas wherein China could look into investing is in mineral exploration, as we aim to capture at least 5% of global exploration funds in the intermediate term. Linked to that, as expressed recently by President Cyril Ramaphosa, we no longer want to export just raw minerals. Instead, we want to have our minerals beneficiated here in South Africa as part of our industrialisation drive,” he said.
IOL