Trade relations between China and South Africa turn a new page

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Inspired by the Belt and Road Initiative, the annual China Trade Week South Africa will take place in Johannesburg in June.

South Africa and China are witnessing strong growth in trade as 23 deals worth more than 7.1 billion US dollars were signed during President Xi Jinping's visit in 2015.

Next year is the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations being established between the countries. Esrom Thabo Thage, the South African consul general in Shanghai, says that relations are better than they have ever been.

South Africa appreciates the fact that China is its biggest trading partner and has been for the last eight years, according to Thabo Thage. But it now wants the trade basket to change and for that reason China is cooperating with South Africa in diversifying trade.

With a growing economy, rapid regional integration and improving infrastructure, the demand for efficient information networks in South Africa is on the rise. Chinese state-owned enterprise China Telecom acquired a telecom license in South Africa in 2012.

China Telecom built an undersea cable that connects South Africa with Europe and Asia with a capacity of more than 24 terabytes, which means it can transfer 1,000 4D high definition movies in one second.

According to a report by the South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association, more than 300 Chinese companies are now in South Africa. About 140 of them are medium- or large-sized companies like Huawei and JA Solar.

Trade between the two countries increased from 61.3 billion yuan in 2015 to 152.1 billion yuan last year, making China the biggest trading partner of South Africa.