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(May 27, 2011, Pretoria, South Africa)
I'm glad to have this opportunity to meet old and new friends from the business communities during my official, friendly visit to South Africa. For a long time the business communities in both countries have made unremitting and active contributions to promote tangible cooperation and friendship between the two peoples. Here, on behalf of the Chinese Government and the Chinese people, I'd like to express sincere greetings and gratitude to all of you.
Both China and South Africa are developing countries with huge significance, sharing extensive common interests and similar development demands. Deeper business cooperation between China and South Africa not only serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples but also helps strengthen solidarity and cooperation among all developing countries. This is the topic talked about the most in my discussions with South African leaders. Both sides spoke highly of the progress made in bilateral business cooperation during the past years, and expressed fully the strong desire to raise the quality of the cooperation and bring it to a higher level. China-South Africa economic and trade cooperation are blessed with many favorable conditions, such as solid foundations and great potential. Last August, the two countries' heads of state jointly signed the Beijing Declaration and not long ago, BRICS leaders gathered in China's Hainan Province for their third conference. With South Africa becoming a new member of BRICS, there is now a new platform for both countries to deepen their bilateral cooperation. As long as we work in the spirit of mutual respect, openness and tolerance and try to seize rare opportunities and bring into full play our advantages, our business cooperation will surely make huge headway forward. I think this is also what the business communities are concerned with. I'd like to take this opportunity to exchange views with you on several topics.
First, we need to enhance cooperation in investment. Over the recent years, our bilateral trade has been expanding rapidly and the results are remarkable. Last year the trade volume was $25.7 billion, accounting for one fifth of the total trade between China and Africa. China is now South Africa's largest trading partner and export market, and South Africa becomes China's largest trading partner in Africa. At the same time, we have noticed, in contrast to the rapid expansion of bilateral trade, China-South Africa investment cooperation has lagged behind. Although the growth has been relatively fast, the scale is still modest and not commensurate with the economic strengths of both countries. By now, China's non-financial investment in South Africa has reached $2.37 billion, ranking fourth in Africa. Meanwhile, South Africa's direct investment in China amounts to only $600 million. Of course, this fact also implies great potential to expand our bilateral investment cooperation. China has a consumption market based on 1.3 billion people, with its economic aggregate ranking the world's second. At the stage of industrialization and urbanization, China has huge demands for investments. South Africa is the biggest economy in Africa and also a resource-rich country. It has close economic relations with and a strong leading influence on the rest of Africa. Besides, South Africa accommodates branches of most of China's financial institutes. The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China injected $5.46 billion into the Standard Bank of South Africa and South Africa's Standard Bank has also set up a representative office in Beijing. All of this has provided favorable conditions for the two sides to deepen and expand investment cooperation, and the two sides have already sent a series of capable businesses to each other for the purpose of investment, with good results. For example, TV sets produced by China's Hisense Group are very popular with clients in South Africa and its neighbors. A number of famous Chinese enterprises, such as ZTE, Huawei, Sinosteel and Jiuquan Iron and Steel, are also working in South Africa. Meanwhile, Snow Beer produced by South Africa Breweries' joint venture in China accounts for 13 percent of China's beer market share. The website www.QQ.com jointly operated by China-South Africa is very popular with Chinese Internet users. All this shows that as long as the two sides try to take advantage of opportunities and stick to mutually beneficial principles, the two sides' investment cooperation will surely achieve greater success.
Second, there is a need to expand the areas of cooperation. Both China and South Africa have worked out respective social and economic development strategies. China is now implementing its 12th Five-Year Plan, prioritizing economic restructuring and industrial upgrading. The focus of the next five years for China's economic development is to upgrade its traditional manufacturing industry, promote emerging industries of strategic significance, accelerate the development of modern service industry, and develop and harness new and clean energy. In South Africa, you are pursuing the New Growth Path, which has identified the high-priority areas of development for the next 10 years, including infrastructure, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism and service industries, to enable its economic mode to absorb greater numbers of labors force.
Our respective development strategies offer rare opportunities and are creating a lot of room for both countries to expand the scope of cooperation. We have to note, after 30 years' reform and opening up, China has developed into the world's manufacturing giant, especially in infrastructure construction and new energy development, China has accumulated a great deal of experience. Besides, China is also the largest source of travelers. Last year Chinese citizens made 57.4 million outbound trips.
South Africa is rich in mineral resources and advanced in mining and manufacturing. It boasts world-class technology in deep mining, utilization of abandoned mining areas and coal chemical industry. Meanwhile, South Africa enjoys natural and cultural scenery which are unique tourism resources. That is to say, cooperation in upgrading manufacturing, basic infrastructure construction, new energy development and utilization, energy conservation, environmental protection, low carbon economy, tourism and service trade suits the two countries' development strategies, complementary to each other. They can surely become new highlights in China and South Africa business cooperation.
Third, there is need for further improvement of the cooperation environment. In recent years the Chinese side has worked hard to better the environment of China-Africa business cooperation. By expanding the scope for tariff-free commodities and setting up African commodity exhibition centers, greater quantities of African commodities are able to make their way into the Chinese market. By setting up the China-Africa Development Fund and providing favorable loans and export supplier credit, Chinese enterprises' investments in Africa are guided and supported. At the same time, China and South Africa have set up a state-level bilateral committee, joint commissions on economy and trade, strategic dialogues and allied cooperative mechanisms. They have signed numbers of bilateral business cooperation documents to promote and protect investment and avoid double taxation, and encouraged scientific and technological cooperation, as well as developed animal and plant quarantine methods. Generally speaking, China and South Africa business cooperation is in a good condition. In order to gradually expand the scale and scope of cooperation, the two sides should open each other's markets by canceling various trade investment barriers and jointly creating a more effective and convenient cooperative environment, making trade investment freer and more convenient. The two sides need to bring into full play existing cooperative mechanisms, work in the spirit of mutual respect, equal consultation and mutual accommodation of each other's concerns, and properly handle friction and disputes so as to ensure the sound development of the bilateral business cooperation.
Business cooperation is the material foundation of overall strategic partnership between China and South Africa and also an important insurance of the countries' friendly relationship. Good political relationships between the two countries should help to promote business relationships while the development of business cooperation will surely vitalize the two countries' bilateral relationship. What I want to stress is, we need to transform our wish of deepening bilateral business cooperation into reality and one important point is to bring into play businesses' role as the main vehicles. Enterprises are major vehicles of markets and investments and also the main parts of business cooperation. Only by strengthening business cooperation, stimulating businesses' enthusiasm and creativity, particularly by pushing forward the cooperation of big programs to drive the overall situation, can we expect to see a better future for China and South Africa business cooperation. The Chinese Government will continue to encourage strong and trusted Chinese enterprises to start business and we also welcome South African enterprises to China for business. All of you present here today are active practitioners and pioneers in China-South Africa business cooperation, diverse in experience. It's my belief that we can all seize the opportunity and move forward to make huge achievements so as to jointly push forward China-South Africa cooperation on a larger scale, into more extensive areas and to a higher level.
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