BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will enable China to play a greater role in participating in infrastructure construction in Africa.
Specifically, Chinese enterprises have launched massive cross-border infrastructure projects in Africa, boosting the African integration, said He Wenping, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Science quoted by the 21st Century Business Herald.
At the just-concluded AU Summit, another two member countries of African Union (AU) include Botswana and Zambia signed the AfCFTA. So far, the number of AfCFTA members has reached 52, of which 18 of countries' parliaments have ratified the agreement.
At present, those approving the AfCFTA have all come from sub-Saharan Africa. For months, the AU have been urging the North African countries to go through the domestic approval procedures as soon as possible.
The AfCFTA is expected to become the worlds' largest free trade area since the World Trade Organization (WTO) was founded. Under the agreement, Africa will create a regional market with a population of more than 1.2 billion people and the GDP to reach 3.3 trillion U.S. dollars in the future.
He Wenping pointed out that if the AfCFTA should take effect, it would have a huge impact on China-Arica economic and trade cooperation. With the improvement of African integration, the development potentials of the African market will be released, which will promote production capacity cooperation between the two economies.
According to statistics from China Customs, China's foreign trade with Africa amounted to 204.19 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 19.7 percent year-on-year, 7.1 percentage points higher than the growth of China’s overall foreign trade during the same period.
Specifically, China's exports to Africa surged 10.8 percent to 104.91 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, while its imports from Africa rose 30.8 percent year on year, according to China Customs.
There is no doubt that the Chinese exporters are paying close attention to AfCFTA, and they will have easier access to the African market after the agreement comes into force. At the same time, Africa hopes to attract more Chinese investors to transfer their production capacity here and then export the products to other parts of Africa from here, said Jeremy Stevens, an economist from Standard Bank Group Ltd. (Edited by Jiang Feifan)
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