Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa attended the opening ceremony of a high-level dialogue between the two countries' scientists in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Recalling the successful Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in December 2015, Xi said during a speech at the forum that he is glad to see that science and research cooperation projects included in the outcome documents of the summit have been well implemented with remarkable achievements.

With joint efforts from both sides, the China-South Africa innovative cooperation in science and technology has been actively advancing, Xi said.

Both China-South Africa and China-Africa science and technology cooperation is faced with important new opportunities, with the FOCAC Beijing summit kicking off in September, the Chinese president said.

"We should actively build new platforms for joint innovation, deepen exchanges and cooperation, boost exchanges among young scientists, proactively involve ourselves in the global innovation network, promote open cooperation in innovation ability with countries around the world, so as to push forward the China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation to keep up with the global trend of science and technology development, and endeavor to become top players in such development," Xi said.

He urged representatives from Chinese and South African science and technology and industrial circles to continue to actively expand innovation and enhance coordination, in order to find a win-win development path for China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation.

For his part, Ramaphosa thanked Xi for his support of South Africa-China science and technology cooperation, noting the fruitful results from bilateral cooperation in recent years.

The South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue demonstrated the two countries' resolution in promoting growth through science and technology innovation, and their cooperation potential in this field, he said.

The South African government is committed to strengthening science and technology innovative cooperation so as to better cope with the 4th Industrial Revolution, Ramaphosa said, stressing that China is a reliable science and research cooperation partner of his country.

He also thanked China for its commitment to helping Africa's development and in promoting the Africa-China science and technology innovative cooperation under the framework of the FOCAC.

Xi and Ramaphosa together toured a photo exhibition of the achievements in China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation before the opening ceremony of the dialogue.

Among the exhibits were photos of Africa's flagship projects in science and technology, South Africa and China's respective science and technology achievements and their cooperation results.

The two leaders listened to the introduction of the South African Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope project, which is a major project involving multinational scientists including from China, and a major bilateral science and technology cooperation project between China and South Africa.

The two presidents also witnessed the first vehicle rolling off the line from Beijing Automobile Works' investment project in South Africa through a video link.