Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation will jointly host an event with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) this Friday, 29 August 2014, at which a BRICS book will be launched. All BRICS countries will be represented.

The publication consists of a compilation of thirteen peer-reviewed papers by BRICS academics along with keynote addresses and full text of the Recommendations of the Fifth BRICS Academic Forum, the Declaration on the Establishment of the BRICS Think Tanks Council and the pdf eThekwini Declaration of the Fifth BRICS Summit (1.12 MB) .

As co-chairs of FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) over the next three years, South Africa and China will also use the event to reflect on FOCAC affairs and implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Action Plan (2013-2015) of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC, thereby injecting new impetus to the development of China-Africa relations and elevating the New Type of China-Africa Strategic Partnership to a higher level.

The year 2013 marked the 15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of South Africa and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The evolution of the relationship between South Africa and China is characterised by the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1998; signing of the Pretoria Declaration on Partnership in 2000; establishment of Bi-National Commission in 2001; elevation of a Partnership to Strategic Partnership in 2004; a Programme for Deepening Strategic Partnership in 2006; as well as the signing of the Beijing Declaration on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2010.

South Africa and China share a sound political relationship which can be used better to lay the basis for implementing South Africa’s economic objectives. As much as China has become South Africa’s single largest trading partner in the world and South Africa, China’s largest trading partner in Africa, there is a need to work towards operationalising critical areas that have been identified in achieving South Africa’s economic objectives.