Question NW3634 to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation

Reply:

a) The Belt and Road Initiative is China's ambitious plan, which aims to link Asia, the Middle East and Africa through over-land and maritime trading corridors focusing on increasing interconnectivity between regions. Regarding Africa's common developmental agenda, the BRI is an important initiative that could realise some of the Continent's developmental priorities, particularly infrastructure development, which would facilitate intra-African trade. The BRI can potentially bring investment in infrastructure projects across the Continent. Realising the potential benefit of this visionary initiative, the African Union (AU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China in January 2015. The MoU focused on an intention to connect all 54 African countries through transportation networks and infrastructural projects, including modern highways, airports, and high-speed railways. South Africa signed an MoU with China in December 2015 on "Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road". However, there are currently no BRI-specific projects in South Africa. Thus, South Africa has yet to benefit from the BRI directly. The joint development cooperation and infrastructure projects currently under discussion between South Africa and China are undertaken bilaterally, including through the FOCAC programme. Recently, China has proposed a “Cooperation Plan between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of South Africa on Complementarity between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP)”, which is under consideration. This Plan could link to the BRI, an over-arching approach of China that encompasses future funding for bilateral projects.

b) Although China is an important bilateral investor in the South African economy, currently, the investments linked to BRI have not yet commenced. However, considering the over-arching framework of the BRI for bilateral infrastructure development projects, SA may benefit in terms of investments, funding and technical skills transfer from projects such as the Small Harbours Development, Mega Focus School, Poverty Alleviation Village Initiative and the Mzimvubu Water Project, which are currently at various stages of implementation.