The South African Department of Trade and Industry and the China-Africa Development Fund (CADF) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Johannesburg on Monday.

At the same time, the CADF opened its representative office in South Africa.

Speaking at the ceremony, deputy Trade and Industry Minister Elizabeth Thabethe stated that areas covered by the MoU included mining, energy, infrastructure and information and communications technology.

She pointed out that the creation of the CADF was one of the steps by China to develop a new relationship with Africa. She added that the opening of the CADF representative office in South Africa represented a new era in the relationship between Africa and China.

Also speaking at the ceremony, African National Congress secretary-general Dr Matthews Phosa affirmed that South Africa was quickly learning to look also to the East for economic partners.

He said that China has set an example by becoming one of the leading economic forces in the world and that China had also shown that it wanted to cooperate with Africa.

Phosa added that it was very clear that there was a Chinese focus on investing in South Africa and assured that such investments would be welcomed in the country, the region and the continent.

He expressed the view that the willingness of the China Development Bank (CDB) to invest in Africa at a time of global economic meltdown was hugely impressive.

The CDB is currently the sole shareholder in the CADF, which was launched in June 2007, with an initial tranche of $1-billion and a total capital investment which will ultimately reach $5-billion.

The chief governor of the CDB, Chen Yuan, reported that the CADF had made investments of nearly $400-million in projects in Africa. These investment were facilitating more than $2-billion of further investments in Africa by Chinese companies.

Yuan stated that the representative office in South Africa would provide means to accelerate investments and develop further cooperation between Chinese and African businesses.

Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Zhong Jianhua, reported that the Embassy was seeing more Chinese business coming to South Africa and the African continent.