The 6th Meeting of China-South Africa Joint Committee on S&T Cooperation and the 6th Session of China-South Africa National S&T Subcommittee were held on October 13, 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The meeting was jointly chaired by Chen Linhao, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, and Du Toit, South Africa’s Deputy Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology.
  
At the meeting both sides introduced their S&T policies and development and discussed how and where to deepen bilateral S&T cooperation in the next stage. They agreed to select and fund joint research programs in such fields as new energy, water, agriculture, food and healthcare in 2017, and jointly support one or two flagship research programs dedicated to big data. The two countries plan to build their first joint laboratory to research mining technologies, launch young scientist exchange programs and advance cooperation between sci-tech parks from each other.
   
After the meeting, Chen Linhao and Du Toit signed minutes of the meeting under the witness of Hou Jianguo, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, and South African officials of the Department of Science & Technology.