On the morning of June 26, 2024, Ambassador Wu Peng, together with Liu Wei, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC and President of the Beijing People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and Gauteng Province Premier Lesufi, attended and addressed the Beijing-South Africa Business Cooperation Promotion Conference in Johannesburg.

Ambassador Wu emphasized the deep-rooted friendship between China and South Africa, recalling President Xi Jinping's successful state visit last August, which marked the beginning of a "golden era" in China-South Africa relations under the joint leadership with President Ramaphosa. He noted that bilateral economic and trade cooperation has flourished, becoming a model for China-Africa and South-South cooperation. To date, over 200 Chinese companies in South Africa have significantly contributed to tax revenue and created more than 400,000 jobs. This conference aims to further strengthen economic and trade cooperation and other exchanges between Beijing and Gauteng Province, fostering new contributions to the development of China-South Africa relations.

Deputy Secretary Liu Wei highlighted that Beijing's trade with South Africa reached 8.9 billion US dollars last year, making up nearly one-fifth of Beijing's trade with Africa. He identified broad cooperation opportunities in digital economy, modern agriculture, biomedicine, cultural tourism, green energy and finance, expressing hopes to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, thus contributing to the development of a high-level China-South Africa and China-Africa community with a shared future, as well as promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation projects.

Premier Lesufi emphasized China's enduring friendship with South Africa, regardless of political changes in the latter. He expressed an eagerness to learn from China's governance experience and to strengthen cooperation in three main areas: combating crime and improving public security, increasing infrastructure investment to create attractive urban centers, and enhancing energy cooperation to ensure stable power supply.

The event resulted in several cooperation achievements, including the signing of four agreements.

Following the conference, Ambassador Wu Peng and Deputy Secretary Liu Wei attended the launch ceremony of Beiqi Foton light trucks entering the South African market.