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 |