President Jacob Zuma has defended China’s surging investment in Africa, telling an audience at Beijing’s Renmin University that China was making an important contribution to the development of the continent.

“We are still at an early stage of what will be an exciting journey, a journey out of poverty, a journey to sustainable improvements in the lives of our people, here in China, and on the African continent,” President Zuma said on Wednesday, the second day of his state visit to the country.

Zuma’s comments come as the debate over China’s role in Africa continues to rage. Critics have raised concerns about China’s support for countries like Sudan and Zimbabwe, as well as its questionable worker safety rules.

“Chinese assistance in infrastructure development in some of the less developed parts of Africa is certainly making an important contribution to future African development,” Zuma said.

African countries remain an attractive destination for Chinese investment funds, though Africa is looking for China to expand its investments beyond mining and resources.

South Africa, for its part, is looking to the world’s second-largest economy to increase its investment in the country. South Africa is strategic for China in that it is Africa’s largest and most advanced economy.

South African President Jacob Zuma and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed the Beijing Declaration, outlining 38 cooperation agreements, following their one-hour talks in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday.

And on the same day, Chinese and South African companies signed more than a dozen agreements covering investments in railways, power transmission, construction, mining, insurance, telecoms and nuclear power.

Zuma is being accompanied on his trip by over 370 representatives from the business community, the largest ever contingent from South Africa to visit China.