Hon Speaker, the ANC welcomes the ground-breaking agreement signed by the Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele on Wednesday, 25 August 2010, on railways and other transport-related matters with the Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun. The agreement recognises the need to find new approaches for consolidating, expanding and deepening the rapid development in the transport sector between South Africa and China.
The agreement seeks to promote investment, industry, trade and co-operation between South Africa and China in the area of rail. The railways agreement will foster close co-operation in rail infrastructure, maintenance and development, financing, network safety and regulations, technology transfer, harmonisation of technical standards and human resource development.
The two countries agreed that there would be an exchange of engineers and related professionals and broad co-operation in the areas of intelligent transport systems that are environmentally sustainable and in labour- intensive best practices. China operates the largest network of high-speed rail in the world: the Shanghai to Beijing railway line is the largest in the world.
The ANC believes that South Africa can benefit from this agreement in terms of using rail to transport people and goods efficiently, effectively and with the least cost to the environment and the economy. Thank you. [Applause.]