Your Excellency Minister Jiang Jianguo,

Respected President Li Yafang of Beijing Review,

Respected Mr. Nolo Letele, Chairman of Multichoice and Director of Naspers Group,

Respected Media Liaison Officer of the Office of the President of South Africa,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am greatly honored to attend the launch ceremony of the ChinAfrica Special Issue for the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa and the Consulate General in Johannesburg, I would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations on the publication of the Summit Special Issue and our warm welcome to Minister Jiang Jianguo and his delegation as well as other guests for your presence here today.

The widely anticipated FOCAC Johannesburg Summit will open tomorrow. Its theme - Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development - shows the shared expectations of all parties. The Summit will be a historic event not only because it will be the first FOCAC Summit on the African continent, but also because it will cover wide-ranging topics and produce substantial results. The leaders will map out a grand new blueprint for the development of China-Africa relations. This will boost the all-round deepening and upgrading of this relationship.

China-Africa cooperation has borne abundant fruit and evolved into a role model for South-South Cooperation since the inception of FOCAC 15 years ago. FOCAC has become an important platform for China and African countries to carry out collective dialogue and pragmatic cooperation as well as a flagship institution spearheading the growth of China-Africa ties.

In the past 15 years, trade between China and Africa has soared from $10 billion to $220 billion. The stock of China's investment in Africa has also rocketed from $500 million to nearly $30 billion. More than 3,000 Chinese companies have established their presence in Africa. A World Bank report points out that the robust economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa since the beginning of this century is closely related to the region's economic ties with China.

ChinAfrica, a monthly magazine of news, views and analyses, is the only periodical in China specifically targeting the African reader. Over the past years, it has remained committed to promoting understanding between the peoples of China and African countries. It reports and comments on major events in China and Africa, and provides objective, balanced and truthful reports and in-depth analyses on the status quo and trend of China-Africa exchanges and cooperation. All this is aimed at presenting the real China to African readers. ChinAfrica also reports on business, cultural and people-to-people contacts and exchanges between China and African countries, and provides useful information on doing business in and traveling to China as well as public services.

The ChinAfrica Special Issue comes out at the right time, on the eve of the Johannesburg Summit.

An exchange platform to convey in a timely fashion the consensus and results achieved by Chinese and African leaders under the framework of FOCAC, ChinAfrica will continue to play an active role in enhancing mutual understanding, deepening people's friendship and promoting pragmatic cooperation in all areas between China and Africa.

I wish the launch ceremony of the ChinAfrica Summit Special Issue every success.

Thank you!