SOUTH African businesses are again expected to increase their presence at, and generate more business from, China's biggest trade fair, the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou in April and May.
SA has become China's biggest trading partner in Africa and China is now SA's biggest trading partner. The value of two-way trade between the two countries was worth 11,7bn in the first 11 months of last year.
Wang Run Sheng, the director of the China Foreign Trade Centre which organises the twice- a-year China Import and Export Fair, told a press briefing on Thursday that 1367 South African businesspeople attended the last fair, held in November.
That represented a 2,94% increase over attendance at the previous fair, in April last year, which in turn had seen a 12% increase in the number of South African delegates over the preceding fair.
The increase in attendance from SA was in spite of the effects of the global economic slowdown, which had reduced representation at the fair from other parts of the world last year, Sheng said. SA was now among the top 10 countries represented at the fair.
According to the trade centre's figures, South African businesses generated 584m of sales at the November China Import and Export Fair, compared with 437m at the April fair.
In total, the China Import and Export Fair, which has been running since 1956 and was previously called the Canton Fair, now generated about 30,5bn of business, Sheng said.
The November fair attracted 188170 buyers from 212 countries and regions.
This year, 110 000 applications had been received from Chinese exhibitors for the 55000 booths available to them, he said, which meant the organisers could satisfy only half the demand.
The cost of a standard booth for a South African delegate was 30000 yuan, or about R33400 at prevailing exchange rates.
Sheng said China was looking beyond buying only minerals and resources from SA and was also interested in machinery and capital goods.
Keith Brebnor, CEO of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said although SA's exports to China were traditionally resources, and it had bought textiles and clothing from China, in recent trade fairs there had been increasing interest in high-technology products from both countries.
SA also offered China a bridge to other Southern African Development Community countries, and the rest of Africa.
Brebnor said the chamber was promoting the Soccer World Cup to 10000 chambers of commerce around the world so that visitors to the soccer event could also use the opportunity for business networking.
Source: allafrica.com
