Amb.Langa: 15th anniv. marks milestone of China, S. Africa [Exclusive Video] (2)

We are also looking at bringing in cultural lessons of South African music, performances and artists to China. Chinese public then could be exposed to our arts and culture. In my opinion one of the best ways of celebration would be to really work hard to produce some results that are deepening the economy and ties between the two countries.

Therefore we hope on economy, we are going to achieve even better results in terms of the increasingly volume of trade is between our two countries in the level of investment.

PD Online: During President Zuma’s visit to China in 2010, the Sino-South Africa relationship was upgraded to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. Two years after the promotion of bilateral relations, what substantive progresses have been made between us?

Dr.Langa: The signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement was a very important development in our bilateral relations. As we know China signed this type of agreement with only about 12 countries. And we are quite happy to be one of those twelve. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement helps better deepen and strengthen the relationship between our two countries.

Besides, the agreement covers a wide range of areas in the cooperation with China in science and technology, transport and infrastructure; health, education and trade. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement ensures that those agreements produce even better results.

We have already seen remarkable progress in the two years since then. China now becomes South Africa’s No.1 trade partner overtaking countries like U.S. and Germany. South Africa is also China’s biggest trade partner on the Africa continent. The volume of trade between the two countries over the past two years has grown dramatically. In 2011, the trade was estimated 45.5 billion US dollars. The volume of investment also grew dramatically from a low base to 7 billion US dollars. We’ve also seen the increase in cooperation in areas such as tourism.

China is now South Africa's biggest tourism market. We are quite happy to see this development. China is the fourth biggest tourism market of South Africa, overtaking countries like France. In the very near future we think China will become South Africa's No.1 tourism destination.