WINDHOEK - Chinese companies operating in Namibia have since 2016 created 11,000 jobs and generated N$3.7 billion (US$250 million) in tax revenue to the Namibian fiscus.

This was revealed in an opinion piece penned by the Chinese ambassador to Namibia, Zhang Yaming, who noted business people from his country with operations in Namibia “brought US$30 million (N$450 million) in foreign direct investment to Namibia”.

“The year 2017 recorded a robust growth of bilateral trade at a volume of US$569 million (N$8.53 billion), up by 30.93%. Overtaking South Africa, China has become Namibia’s largest export market in the first quarter of 2018, with a volume of N$3.4 billion which accounts for 18.3% of Namibia’s total exports,” said Zhang who wrote the piece prior to the forthcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting to be attended in Beijing by President Hage Geingob.

Geingob, who is the current SADC chairperson will be among the several African leaders such as South African president Cyril Ramaphosa who will grace the summit that will be a significant diplomatic event hosted by China this year and that will be attended by the largest number of foreign leaders in one place early next month.

Apart from posting impressive trade volumes in Namibia, trade between China and several other African countries has increased by 17 times between 2000 and 2017 as its investments in Africa have also grown significantly. A number of major Chinese-assisted infrastructure projects, including the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya’s standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi, are tangible benefits brought by the China-Africa cooperation.

“There will always be further progress. For the past 3 years after the Johannesburg summit, there are new changes of international situation, new needs for the development of African continent, new expectations from African countries on China-Africa cooperation. In this regard, the Beijing Summit will, from a strategic and long-term perspective, formulate atop-level design for China-Africa relations, and introduce new measures to deepen China-Africa cooperation,” wrote the Chinese ambassador. “Firstly, the Beijing Summit will blow the opening whistle for China and Africa to build a community with a shared future, which will inevitably produce strong cohesiveness. Nowadays, there is a trend of unilateralism, protectionism and counter-globalism in the world, and the world economy is facing some new instabilities and uncertainties,” he further expounded.