South African businessmen brought a batch of projects with a total investment value of 10 billion Yuan (US$ 1.6 billion) when attending the 2014 Hubei-South Africa Economic and Trade Fair held by Hubei Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province, on May 27.
Among the projects South Africa brought, municipal engineering construction, electric products and new building materials ranked the top three. Over 70 Hubei enterprises participated in the fair, including Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp., Fiber Home Technologies Group and Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable Company Ltd. (YOFC).
The total trade volume between Hubei and South Africa exceeded 4 billion Yuan (US$ 640.4 million) in 2013, with 0.8 billion Yuan (US$ 128.08 million) exports and 3.3 billion Yuan (US$ 528.33 million) imports.
The industrial strength of Hubei laid in rolled steel, harbor construction, automobile and auto parts, which was complementary to that of South Africa. The Hubei Council for the Promotion of International Trade pledged to provide more platforms to help Hubei enterprises go global.
According to sales representatives, investing South Africa was a way to entry the market of Southern African Development Community (SADC), where Chinese enterprises could enjoy tariff free treatment and other preferential policies and reach out to a market having 500 million people.
As introduced, Hubei would carry out a series of "Into Africa" economic and trade activities in Ghana, South Africa and Kenya in October. Also, November 2014 and June 2015 would see the implementation of "Into America" economic and trade activities and "Milan World Expo" Hubei Day activities, thus intensifying Hubei's economic and trade contact with Chile, Cuba, Canada and European countries.