President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said that South Africa is ready to work with China ahead of the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping on his fourth State visit to South Africa to attend the fifteenth yearly Brics Summit being hosted in Johannesburg.

The international community is monitoring the upcoming Brics Summit, which, after much controversy, will not see Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance.

In his weekly letter to the nation Ramaphosa said relations between the China and South Africa were underpinned by a 10-year strategic programme of cooperation – between 2020 and 2029 – and the summit provided an opportunity to assess progress in the areas of cooperation and identify ways of deepening collaboration.

This year marks 25 years of diplomatic ties between South Africa and China.

In addition to a number of structured bilateral mechanisms, South Africa and China collaborate on international strategic platforms such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Brics, the G20, the G77 plus China alliance, and others.

Ramaphosa also views energy cooperation between South Africa and China as a focus area that holds great promise following the New Energy Investment and Cooperation Conference held in June this year.

It looked at opportunities for collaboration in the green economy, the just energy transition and in science and technology.

There are already about 200 Chinese companies operating in this area in South Africa.
 
“South Africa has a great deal to learn from China’s development path. Among other achievements, China has lifted nearly 800-million people out of poverty over a 40-year period. According to World Bank data, through this, China has contributed close to three-quarters of the global reduction in the number of people living in extreme poverty. As partners in development, China and South Africa have long shared a common understanding that trade and investment are the foremost catalysts for improving the living standards of our respective peoples,” said Ramaphosa.
 
Further, he said South Africa is eager to deepen its collaboration within the frameworks of China’s common prosperity doctrine and strategy and within South Africa’s own National Development Plan and Economic Reconstruction and Development Plan.

“We are actively collaborating on the design and implementation of poverty alleviation strategies aligned with our respective developmental visions, as well as on women and youth empowerment. As South Africa we want to address the trade deficit between South Africa and China,” Ramaphos said.
 
Bilateral trade with China has grown exponentially, from less than R1-billion in 1998 to over R614-billion in 2022.