The following articles appeared in
Business Day on October 1st,
2004.
Message from the Ambassador to SA
of the Peoples' Republic of
China, Liu
Guijin
"October 1, 2004 witnesses the 55th
anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of
China.
This ancient country, with a history of
more than 5000 years and a population of more than 1.3
billion people, has made great progress in social and
economic development over the past 55 years, particularly in
the last two decades since the country opened its doors to
the outside world.
The living standards of the
average Chinese person have been greatly improved. An
estimated number of 42.5 million people have been lifted
from extreme poverty since 1990, and China is capable of
feeding 22% of world's population through 10% of world's
arable lands. The fast-growing economy and rich human
resources of China offers tremendous opportunities to all
countries.
In 2003, China became the largest
recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world
with a total amount of 53 billion USD, and imported 412.84
billion USD worth of goods and service from various parts of
the world. The peaceful development of China also bodes well
for the interests of the developing world in terms of
establishing a more just and equitable world
order.
The year 2004 is of great significance
to the South African people too. It is in this year that
South African people joyfully celebrate their 10 years of
freedom and democracy and held the third non-racial general
election. In the past ten years, tremendous changes have
taken place in South Africa.
The ANC
government goes all out to remedy the traumas of apartheid,
and actively addresses the challenges of unemployment and
poverty. Being an important country in Africa and the
developing world, South Africa spares no efforts in pushing
forward African peace and development as well as the agenda
of the developing world, which has won worldwide
recognition.
This year also marks the 6th
anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between
China and South Africa. Ever since the normalisation of
bilateral relations between the two countries in 1998,
China-South Africa relations have been developing in an
all-round, rapid and healthy manner.
The two
countries have established a strategic partnership as well
as the China-South Africa Bi-National Commission to guide
and coordinate bilateral cooperation in various areas. As at
the first half of 2004, the bilateral trade volume stood at
USD 2.75 billion and it is well estimated that the total
bilateral trade volume will surpass 5 billion USD by the end
of this year.
Two-way investment has also
surpassed USD 500 million. China and South Africa are highly
complementary in terms of economy and trade, and share
identical or similar views on many major international
issues such as multilateralism, peace and development and
WTO trade talks, among others.
With
the deepening of understanding between the two countries, I
am deeply convinced that China-South Africa relations are
bound to have an even brighter
future."
(ends)
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