Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Thursday in Cape Town hailed its partnership with South Africa, saying: "South Africa is China's key partner of strategic cooperation in Africa."

The Chinese premier made the statement while addressing more than 800 business people from China and South Africa at a forum held in Cape Town.

Wen Jiabao encouraged Chinese companies to increase import from South Africa and work to further boost the growth of bilateral trade.

"China supports South Africa's Accelerated and Shared Growth initiative and will assist by providing skills training and capacity building," he said.

The premier, who made two-day official visit to South Africa, said: "We will train 300 professionals and various types for South Africa in the next three years."

"We will also promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges as well as tourism to strengthen understanding and friendship between our two peoples," he added.

Reviewing the bilateral relations, Wen said, China and South Africa share extensive common ground politically and enjoy enormous potential of cooperation economically.

Deepening China-South Africa strategic partnership serves the fundamental interests of both countries, he added.

China and South Africa signed the Program Partnership between China and South Africa, which sets forth the goals and tasks for intensifying cooperation between the two countries.

Wen said: "China will maintain high-level mutual visits with South Africa, give full play to the role of the Bi-National Commission and conduct regular exchange of views with South Africa on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.

"We will expand our cooperation in agriculture, forestry, science and technology, infrastructure, telecommunications, energy, mining and other fields," Wen said.

China and South Africa Wednesday signed 13 agreements on cooperation in a wide range of fields such as politics, economy, trade, national defense, agriculture, technology and sciences.

Source: Xinhua