Ministry of Commerce: South Africa has been China's largest trading partner in Africa for 13 consecutive years. Ministry of Commerce | News | Africa
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa, as well as the BRICS "South Africa Year". At today's routine press conference of the Ministry of Commerce, the spokesperson introduced that in recent years, under the strategic guidance and personal promotion of the two heads of state, China South Africa economic and trade cooperation has achieved leapfrog development.
Bilateral trade is growing rapidly
In 2022, the bilateral trade volume between China and South Korea reached 56.74 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 5%, reaching a new high in 8 years. In the first half of this year, it further accelerated, with a growth rate of 11.7%. China has been South Africa's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years, and South Africa has been China's largest trading partner in Africa for 13 consecutive years.
Significant results in two-way investment
China is one of the main sources of investment in South Africa, with an investment stock of over 10 billion US dollars, covering multiple fields such as finance, home appliances, automotive, mining, and energy. South Africa is also the African country with the highest actual investment in China, and the two sides have formed a stable and strong supply chain industrial chain cooperation relationship.
Strong and effective cooperation within a multilateral framework
Both sides jointly uphold a non discriminatory, open, inclusive, and transparent multilateral trading system, emphasize the importance of multilateralism, and jointly promote the unexpected success of the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization. Relying on the BRICS cooperation mechanism, they have issued a unanimous voice to support the multilateral trading system, unleash the potential of the digital economy, promote trade and investment and sustainable development, and strengthen supply chain cooperation.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, Shu Jueting, stated that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa, as well as the "South African Year" of the BRICS. China is willing to take this as an opportunity to continue to take active and effective measures with the South, expand trade and investment scale, deepen industrial and supply chain cooperation, and help maintain a diverse and stable international economic pattern, in order to promote the high-quality development of China South economic and trade relations at a new historical starting point.