Wen Jiabao this week embarks on the first visit to South Africa by a Chinese premier in 50 years as the continental powers join forces to push the developing world’s agenda in the global arena.
The landmark visit on Wednesday and Thursday underlines the importance Beijing accords to Pretoria eight years after they established diplomatic relations.
“We have realised that this is one of the most important countries,” Chinese ambassador to South Africa Liu Guijing told Agence France-Presse in an interview.
“Economically it is the most powerful country in the continent. Although the land is only four percent of the African total and the population is about five percent of Africa’s total, its contribution to the GDP of the whole continent is around 25%,” he said.
Ties between the two powerhouses have expanded after apartheid South Africa shunned diplomatic relations with China, allying instead with Taiwan, another international pariah during that epoch.
Wen’s visit, part of a seven-nation African tour, comes ahead of the first Asia-Africa summit to be hosted by China later this year and a key Group of Eight summit in Russia with leading developing countries in attendance including China and South Africa.
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said Wen’s trip “comes at a very important time I believe when we are trying to consolidate South-South cooperation with a view to improving market access, trade and investment”.
He said it was a perfect opportunity ahead of the G8 summit to “prepare a coherent South approach” on such issues such as energy security, climate change, health care and education.
“China shares similar positions with us with regard to the governance of the global economic system,” he said. “China has the potential to be an effective ally in this regard.”
During the visit, Wen and South African President Thabo Mbeki are due to sign an agreement, formally called the Programme of Cooperation and Deepening Strategic Partnership.
They will also discuss proposed reforms of the United Nations, stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and the Iran and North Korea nuclear crises, according to Chinese and South African officials.
“We both are in favour of reforming the UN so that it can pay more attention to development issues and also we are in favour of enhancing the effectiveness of the United Nations. Until now it has been concentrating too much on talking,” ambassador Liu said.
He said the other topics to be discussed were trade reforms, greater market access and tariff-free trade and trying to maintain some momentum in the WTO’s Doha round of negotiations, launched in 2001 with the aim of tearing down barriers to commerce.
China has so far not played a high-profile role in the negotiations, leaving Brazil and India to steer a developing world bloc that is battling for more concessions from the wealthy.
Pahad said the visit would also be used by Pretoria to seek Beijing’s help to consolidate the the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), a homespun programme to end poverty and bad governance in Africa, which has made little progress so far.
But there are irritants, linked to the huge imbalance in trade. South Africa accounts for 20% of China’s trade with the continent. Bilateral trade equalled $7,2-billion in 2005, a fourfold increase over 2000.
But Pahad said that Chinese goods comprised nine percent of South Africa’s total imports but accounted for only three percent of total exports, adding that this anomaly would be addressed during Wen’s visit. – AFP