BEIJING - China's State-owned enterprises have created job opportunities and show commitment to their corporate social responsibilities in South Africa, said a senior trade official in the country.

"Their presence has added to the value of products here - benefiting not only the country but the continent as a whole," Lionel October, director-general of South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry, said during the country's recent exposition, its largest-ever in China.

South Africa is now China's largest trade partner in Africa.

He said South Africa has strict laws to protect labor, the environment and communities, and "Chinese enterprises have stringently followed the laws and created job opportunities".

"Unlike before, when countries only took South African raw materials, trade relations are now more diverse. And Chinese enterprises are committed to corporate social responsibilities and transfer of technology and skills," he said.

A recent arrival in the country, State-owned cement group Jidong headquartered in Hebei, is building a concrete plant in South Africa, where it "has significantly transferred leading technologies, skills to South Africa", he noted.

Statistics show Sino-South African trade grew 24 percent on an average over each of the past 10 years.

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade hit $32.59 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 88 percent over the same period in 2010.

The director general said he expects the figure to grow "exponentially" next year.

In addition to traditional hotspots in trade such as minerals, he expects South Africa's exports will expand to include wine, renewable energy and high-tech products "such as our undersea cable and hydrogenated oil technologies".

Sinosteel, one of the largest and earliest Chinese SOEs active in the country, published an Africa Sustainable Development Report twice in the past two years, the first of its kind among all Chinese enterprises.

It said it has created more than 3,000 jobs in South Africa, 80 percent of them local employees.

Shenzhen Huaqiang Co Ltd, teamed with China Development Bank and two fund organizations, has plans to develop a 770,000 square meter theme park in the country.

Sasol, a leading South African company with advanced coal-to-oil technology, joined with SOEs like Shenhua to build a batch of projects now thriving in China.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/06/2011 page15)