China's largest African trade partner, South Africa, also expressed enthusiasm in welcoming Chinese investors. South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said last week that China's investment was welcomed in South Africa not only in the traditional mining and manufacturing fields, but also in energy, finance, biotechnology, agricultural products processing and tourism.

In the first four months this year, trade volume between China and South Africa increased 22.7 percent year-on-year to 2.61 billion U.S.dollars, with the annual total predicted to hit 8 billion dollars.

By the end of 2005, more than 100 Chinese companies had invested about 250 million dollars in trade, agriculture, textiles, electronics, mining, transport and other fields in South Africa.

Wen outlined China's policy towards Africa in Egypt on Sunday, saying the government wanted to encourage more domestic companies to invest in Africa to raise the continent's capacity for self development.

A report from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has stated that Chinese products posed no threat to African producers as the low prices increased the purchasing power African residents.

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