SA & China sign 26 agreements worth R94bn

Chinese President Xi Jinping was met with a 21-gun salute as he arrived Tuesday in Zimbabwe, where there are high hopes that his country will help revive the struggling southern African economy.

It also said that another agreement was signed to fund infrastructure and industrial development projects in South Africa and Africa. The two countries also signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation.

And official sources are saying that President Xi Jinping will indeed announce this week a very substantial amount of new Chinese investment in Africa and other assistance to the continent.

In a bylined article published in the local newspaper the Herald, Xi touted the close ties with Zimbabwe as being “a cornerstone” of China’s foreign policy, despite constant and complex changes in the worldwide landscape.

The relationship between China and Africa is a partnership that is aligned to Africa’s development goals and not merely based on just trade, South African Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe, has said.

Since the outbreak of Ebola a year ago, China has delivered more than 117 million dollars worth of humanitarian aid and sent hundreds of medical workers to the front line in Ebola-stricken West Africa.

However, experts say China is a shrewd investor and that its investment focus in Africa is guided by resource exploitation opportunities.

“China-Africa cooperation has now come to a stage where it needs to be upgraded and transformed”, Zhang Ming, the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, reportedly said in Beijing, adding that Africa was now at “the early stage of industrialization”. Production may start at the end of 2017, said Geoffrey Qhena, the chief executive officer of the Industrial Development Corp.

The Republic of Congo, Angola and Mauritania are African nations most exposed to China’s slowdown because nearly half of their exports go to the Asian nation, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. Oil accounts for the bulk of exports from Congo and Angola, while iron ore makes up more than 40 percent of Mauritania’s exports.

Xi’s visit is a major event in the history of Sino-African relations and a new milestone for China-Zimbabwe relations.

“It’s a mutually beneficial perspective”, said Hruby. In 2013, Beijing invested $601 million in Zimbabwe projects, more than any other African country, reported Xinhua, the government’s news service.

South African state owned enterprises including Eskom, Transnet, the Industrial Development Corporation, SA National Space Agency and the SA Nuclear Corporation also signed deals with Chinese institutions.

“Key themes for Africa will be Africa’s growing debt to China (and) how China’s domestic stimulus can re-ignite commodity demand to help pay off the loans and industrialisation of the continent”, said Martyn Davies, Managing Director for Emerging Markets & Africa at Deloitte.

The majestic structure, which was built by China in 1966, has been the landmark of the city ever since and only one of epitomes of China’s continuous assistance for Africa.