Beijing has pledged to bankroll $14.7 billion in South Africa and provide the country’s power utility and logistics corporation with loans. The South African rand firmed by more than one percent on news of the investment.
The announcement followed a meeting between the two countries’ leaders President Cyril Ramaphosa and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pretoria. Xi’s state visit took place ahead of the 10th BRICS summit, scheduled for July 25-27. South Africa’s biggest city of Johannesburg is set to welcome the heads of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
“China is ready to invest and work with South Africa in various sectors, such as infrastructure development, ocean economy, green economy, science and technology, agriculture, environment and finance,” Ramaphosa told journalists following the meeting.
“We also recognized that, although trade figures have grown steadily over the past few years, bilateral trade has not reached its potential. We have thus explored avenues for increasing trade, identifying sectors for future investment and promoting tourism.”
The parties reportedly signed three major agreements aimed at strengthening mutual trade and identifying sectors for future investment. The presidents also announced plans to relax travel restrictions and loosen visa requirements.
The rand grew 1.04 percent to 13.3200 per dollar at 11:45 GMT, its firmest since Thursday.
“The rand is firming because our president is making it rain,” Wichard Cilliers, a trader at Pretoria-based Treasuryone told Bloomberg. “He has just secured another big investment, this time from China. That means new FDI inflows.”
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