China’s pledge of $50B funding ‘great boon’ for continent: South African president

By Hassan Isilow

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa Thursday dubbed as a “great boon” China’s pledge of $50 billion in funding to the African continent.

“I am very positively disposed to the amount of money President Xi (Jinping) announced today. I think it is going to be a great boon to the African continent and each country must then structure its own investments with various entities in China in a way that benefits them,” Ramaphosa told a news conference telecast live from Beijing.

Xi pledged more than $50 billion in funding to the continent, and announced elevating ties with all member nations to a “strategic level.”

Beijing hosted the 9th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), where Xi said his government “will provide RMB360 billion yuan ($50.7 billion) of financial support through the next three years to African nations.

Ramaphosa said African countries are committed to enhancing relations with China “because the Asian superpower has good intentions.”

“China seeks to promote mutually beneficial relations with countries they engage with. I don’t subscribe to the belief that the relationship is oppressive. China has never been a colonial power in Africa,” he stressed.

Ramaphosa refused to buy a reporter’s question that Chinese loans were a “debt trap” for Africa.

“I don’t buy the notion that when China invests with an intention of ensuring the countries end up in debt,” said the South African president, who met with Xi on Monday when the duo announced elevating bilateral relations to an “all-round strategic cooperative partnership in the new era.”

Ramaphosa said during the COVID-19 pandemic he had the opportunity to talk to Xi about the debt that many African countries were carrying at the time. It led China to cancel some of the debts, he recalled.

“In the end, we would see China as a partner that seeks to foster the development of our continent,” he told reporters.

“Partnership with China is based on mutual friendship for both to succeed,” said Ramaphosa.

Africa’s most industrialized nation signed up to eight agreements with China to increase trade.

Ramaphosa said South Africa will export beef to China whose exports had fluctuated due to foot and mouth diseases in parts of the country.

China is South Africa’s largest trading partner.

South Africa will now also export more agricultural products to China as well as manufactured goods compared to previous exports of raw materials, according to Ramaphosa.

The two countries agreed to cooperate in innovation and research owing to its enormous advancement in science and technology, the South African president said, adding that they also agreed to cooperate on energy security which will help address South Africa’s current energy crisis.