This photo taken on Aug. 29, 2024 shows the logo of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) near China National Convention Center in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The China-Africa trade volume hit a historic high of 282.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, up 1.5 percent from the previous year. China has achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in trade with nearly half of the African countries.
In addition, China's direct investment stock in Africa exceeded 40 billion U.S. dollars, becoming one of Africa's major sources of foreign investment. These figures demonstrate the new highs of China-Africa trade scale and a steady growth momentum of investment cooperation, highlighting the strong vitality of economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa.
-- Closer economic and trade cooperation
Busy factories, bustling ports and shuttling merchants bear witness to the booming China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.
China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years. Both sides have scaled up cooperation and optimized trade structure over the years. "The present China-Africa economic and trade cooperation is going deeper, with fruitful results and strong vitality," commented a media institution of Egypt.
Such momentum is highlighted by the increasing exports of African agricultural products to China. In 2023, China's imports of nuts, vegetables, flowers and fruits from Africa registered a year-on-year increase of 130 percent, 32 percent, 14 percent, and 7 percent, respectively.
More high-quality African agricultural products, such as fresh pears from South Africa, sesame from Tanzania, cashew nuts from Ivory Coast, chili peppers from Rwanda, and coffee from Ethiopia, appear on the dining tables of Chinese households, thanks to initiatives like China's "green channel" for African agricultural imports.
Up to now, China has signed 22 protocols with 14 African countries on agricultural products into China, and the amount of imported agricultural products from Africa has maintained positive growth for seven consecutive years.
Through the nine programs of pragmatic cooperation between China and Africa, China has approved and implemented 26 trade facilitation projects and 11 industrialization and employment promotion projects, which have significantly improved the regional connectivity on the African continent, and effectively supported the trade facilitation between China and Africa.
-- Vitality unleashed by digital economy
In May 2024, Huawei launched its Cairo-based public cloud services in Egypt, offering more than 200 cloud service items such as AI, data and development platforms. The icebreaking public cloud services in Egypt and even in northern Africa will further boost the country's digital economy.
From the construction of digital infrastructure and the digital transformation of society to the new business forms like e-commerce, live streaming sales and mobile payment, China-Africa digital economic cooperation is getting more diversified, helping Africa realize digital transformation. In addition, Chinese enterprises have actively engaged in building digital infrastructure in Africa to help African countries narrow the digital divide.
During the African Goods Online Shopping Festival, Chinese and African live-streamers joined hands to promote African specialty products, enabling Chinese consumers to easily purchase these goods. The two sides also collaborated on the Silk Road e-commerce, bringing a variety of quality African products to the Chinese market via cross-border e-commerce platforms.
-- Broadened cooperation channels
Hunan Gaoqiao Grand Market, which serves as the parallel and permanent exhibition hall of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE), epitomizes the economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa.
During the third CAETE last year, a total of 120 programs worth 10.3 billion U.S. dollars were signed, and 99 cooperation programs worth 8.7 billion U.S. dollars were launched.
Meanwhile, the Conference on China-Africa Investment and Trade Promotion and Cooperation was held in Nairobi in May of this year, as part of the CAETE activities. At this event, 10 cooperation programs were successfully inked.
At the sixth China International Import Expo (CIIE) last year, seven out of the 11 countries making their debut in the national exhibition were from Africa. An increasing number of African countries and enterprises are taking the CIIE as an opportunity to gain insight into China.
The CIIE provides a great platform for African enterprises to showcase and promote their products to consumers of the vast Chinese market, said an executive of the Standard Bank of South Africa. The Standard Bank of South Africa has taken part in the CIIE for six years in a row. (Edited by Yang Linlin with Xinhua Silk Road, linlinyanglyn@163.com)
A single purchase
