Wei Jie claudiamente@hotmail.com SOUTH Africa will set up a trade and investment facilitation office in Nanshan District to boost mutual investment and trade, officials announced at the South Africa-Shenzhen (Nanshan) Investment Promotion and Partnership Meeting held at Nanshan’s Global Service Center yesterday afternoon. At the meeting, South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition and the Global Service Center, backed by the Nanshan District Government, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the office. Lester Bouah, chief director of investment promotion for South Africa, said the office is the first the country has opened abroad. It is intended to serve as a gateway for bilateral commercial engagement and accelerate deals and project matchmaking between companies based in South Africa and Shenzhen. Mahdi Basadien, Charge d’Affairs ad interim at the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in China, said Shenzhen was chosen because of its strategic advantages. “Shenzhen is China’s Silicon Valley and a global innovation hub. We chose to set up the office here because of its comprehensive strengths in technology, industry, and open systems,” he said. The announcement caps a rapid series of exchanges between Nanshan and South African authorities. In April, a Nanshan government delegation visited South Africa’s trade ministry to discuss promoting enterprise expansion, policy alignment, and tariff facilitation, ultimately reaching a number of agreements. Since a July visit by a South African trade delegation, both sides have conducted three rounds of in-depth talks and launched a targeted screening and matching mechanism. With roughly 63 million people, a GDP of about US$410 billion, and a youth population of some 31%, South Africa offers dynamic consumer demand and labor resources, according to Bouah. Chinese firms have invested more than US$25 billion in South Africa, creating over 400,000 local jobs. South African firms have invested about US$8 billion in China. Nanshan-based companies have been active in pursuing opportunities in South Africa and the broader African market in recent years, investing across manufacturing, mining, energy, and information and communication technology. | 