SAfrica to seek 'balanced' China links

PRETORIA, June 13 (Reuters) South Africa will use next week's visit by Premier Wen Jiabao to address its bulging trade imbalance with China, whose growing clout across Africa has raised fears it could overwhelm the world's poorest continent.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad today said that Wen's June 21-22 visit to Cape Town would allow the two countries to assess how best to cooperate in the face of China's rapid economic growth and its increasing interest in Africa.

Pahad said Wen's talks with President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday would cover a range of subjects including coordinating the approach of both countries to global trade issues and development strategies for rural areas.

But the key issues are clearly economic.

Analysts have expressed concern China has flooded Africa with cheap goods and made favourable deals for African resources while fending off African goods in Chinese markets.

Sino-South Africa trade jumped by 30 per cent between 2005 and 2004, but was almost four-to-one in China's favour.

Pahad said South Africa remained concerned that trade alliances were uneven.

''We need to find a better balance,'' Pahad said.

While South African firms such as mining giant Anglo American and brewer SABMiller have led the charge in investing in China with some 400 million dollars, China has put only about 130 million dollars into South Africa, mostly in one chromium mine.

''We welcome Chinese involvement in Africa. It is appropriate that such an economic powerhouse makes a contribution to Africa's development,'' Pahad told a news briefing.

''We need to see how we fit in to the Chinese' broader economic strategies.'' Wen's visit is part of a seven-nation tour by the Chinese premier that comes less than two months after Chinese President Hu Jintao made his own swing through Africa, locking in oil deals in Kenya and Nigeria while handing out grants for economic and technical cooperation.

Along with South Africa, Wen is due to visit Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria and already a key supplier to China's booming market, and the Republic of Congo -- an up-and-coming African oil producer.

A large Chinese business delegation travelling with Wen will be the focus of lobbying by South African officials hoping to promote the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the continent's home-grown economic recovery project.

South Africa also hopes to use the visit to push its own new campaign to speed economic growth, with particular focus on investment in areas including energy, mining, engineering, finance and tourism.

Pahad said areas of economic friction, including complaints by South African unions and textile makers that the country's nascent clothing industry is being swamped by cheap Chinese imports, would be addressed at a separate business forum.

But he added that South Africa was eager to ramp up relations with China and was looking forward to a summit on Sino-African links to be held in Beijing in November, which Mbeki is planning to attend.

''We have no concern that they are coming (to Africa) with an ulterior motive,'' he said.

REUTERS SY BD2344