Chinese and African government officials and businesses are gathering in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province, for the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, a major platform for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, which is scheduled to kick off on Thursday.
Inside the Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center on Wednesday, exhibitors from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and other African countries are ramping up efforts to set up the venue with local specialties, including Namibian chili sauce, Kenyan flowers and malachite bracelets, Beninese sweet bread pineapple, Tanzanian sapphires, and Lesotho wool blankets.
Themed "China and Africa: Together Toward Modernization," the event will feature 30 economic and trade activities in fields including China-Africa industrial chain collaboration, green minerals, infrastructure, traditional medicine, cultural industries and youth entrepreneurship, according to the organizer.
As of Wednesday, more than 30,000 people from 53 African countries, 11 international organizations, 27 domestic provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and more than 4,700 Chinese and African enterprises, business associations, and financial institutions have registered to attend the conference and the exhibition, the Global Times learned from the organizer on Wednesday.
Among the high-level attendees, Ahunna Eziakonwa, UN assistant secretary-general and director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Programme, will take part in the expo, with the mission focusing on leveraging trade, innovation, and responsible investment to accelerate sustainable development across the African continent, according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
"Since the first event in 2019, China has continuously held the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, with its scale gradually expanding, demonstrating the increasingly close economic and trade ties between China and African countries, as well as China's unwavering commitment to opening-up and sharing the dividends of development," He Wenping, a director of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The expo has collected 279 projects for signing between Chinese and African businesses, an increase of 43.8 percent over the previous session. After review, 175 cooperation projects will be signed during the session, involving an amount of $11.39 billion, according to the organizer.
He noted that as the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing last year proposed 10 partnership action plans, the upcoming expo marks concrete action to implement those plans. With the support of this platform, China-Africa trade has expanded from traditional agricultural and mineral products to diversified sectors, the expert said.
On the one hand, high-quality African specialty agricultural products, handicrafts, and light consumer goods are entering China, enriching product supply; on the other hand, Chinese technologies, cross-border e-commerce, power communications, and green industrial chains are increasingly brought to the African market, injecting new momentum into China-Africa pragmatic cooperation, He noted.
Economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa has demonstrated strong vitality, with a rapid increase in trade over the past 25 years, official data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed on Wednesday.
China's total imports and exports with African countries increased from less than 100 billion yuan ($13.9 billion) in 2000 to 2.1 trillion yuan in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 14.2 percent, according to the data.
The GAC also published the 2024 China-Africa trade index, which reached a record high of 1,056.53 points. The index uses the year 2000 as its benchmark, set at 100 points.
Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on Wednesday that in recent years, under the guidance of the FOCAC, China-Africa relations have achieved leapfrog development.
China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China have established strategic partnerships, and China has been the largest trading partner for Africa for 16 years in a row. Since the FOCAC Beijing Summit last year, China has made an additional investment of over 13.3 billion yuan, and provided funding of over 150 billion yuan to Africa, according to Lin.
"China always views enhancing solidarity and cooperation with African countries as an important cornerstone of our foreign policy," the spokesperson said. "We stand ready to work with Africa to make solid progress in implementing the outcomes of FOCAC Beijing Summit."
