BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- 2024 Forum on China-Africa Economic, Trade and Cultural Cooperation, a splashy local promotion event under the framework of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), is poised to unleash more potential for China-Africa cooperation.
The forum, organized by Zhejiang provincial government as a pivotal platform to communicate and cooperate with its African counterparts, is scheduled to open in east China's Jinhua City on November 8.
Setting one main forum and four parallel sessions, the event will delve into a diverse range of topics related to China-Africa cooperation such as the economic and trade opportunities, and cultural and tourism exchanges as well.
By then, a crowd full of diversity and professionalism will gather there to witness releasing of a report on upgrading of African agricultural industrial chain, the business license awarding for China-Africa agricultural sci-tech park in Jinhua, etc.
As a forerunner in opening-driven cooperation with Africa, Jinhua has deeply engaged in economic, trade, cultural and educational communications and cooperation with its African partners in recent years.
Sparing no effort to build the China-Africa economic, trade and cultural cooperation demonstration zone, the Chinese city is endeavoring to craft a unique Jinhua-style model for China-Africa cooperation.
Through two-way business-matching and procurement activities between local and African enterprises such as those in Tanzania, cooperation in agricultural machinery, hardware tools, and textile industries will be further explored to facilitate the industrialization and agricultural modernization drive of Africa.
Thanks to the prospering cooperation, Jinhua City embraced robust growth in trade with Africa. From 2014 to 2023, its trade with Africa rose on average 12.1 percent annually to 740.27 billion yuan and exceeded for the first time 100 billion yuan last year, up 18.4 percent on year to 116.85 billion yuan.
While focusing on African industrialization and agricultural modernization, regulators in Jinhua kept guiding local companies to "go global" and enhancing investment and production capacity cooperation with African partners.
Year to date, 55 enterprises and institutions have been established in Africa to blaze a new path for integrated China-Africa production, processing and trade cooperation.
Zhu Chonglie, Party chief of Jinhua, said the city is expecting to better leverage the forum in unlocking its comparative advantages and expanding channels to further cooperation with African countries in trade, investment, production capacity, culture, and education sectors.
(Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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