China and South Africa on Wednesday signed a letter of intent on co-building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a move to upgrade bilateral cooperation, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Wednesday.

Witnessed by the top leaders of the two countries, Zheng Shanjie, head of the NDRC, together with South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor signed the letter of intent.

In December 2015, China and South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. As of now, China has signed agreements on the BRI with 52 out of 53 African countries with which it has formal diplomatic relations, according to the NDRC.

In order to commence the synergy within the BRI and South Africa's Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) frameworks, government departments of the two sides vowed to continue their communication and to facilitate bilateral cooperation.

China and South Africa pledged to keep implementing the consensus reached by top leaders of both countries, and to sign a cooperation plan under the BRI and ERRP frameworks following the MoU, in a bid to benefit people of the two countries, said the NDRC.