(FOCAC) Economic Watch: China-Africa economic, trade cooperation continues to gain momentum

BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China-Africa economic and trade cooperation continues to gather momentum driven by a slew of concrete plans unveiled at the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing.

During the summit, China said that, in the next three years, the country will work with Africa to implement 10 partnership actions for modernization to deepen China-Africa cooperation and spearhead the Global South modernization.

The 10 partnership actions cover areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, green development and common security.

Mwangi Wachira, former World Bank economist and advisor to the Kenyan government, said in an interview with Xinhua that he has long taken note of the China-Africa industrial chain cooperation.

Wachira expected Africa to expand its supply chains to feed factories across the continent.

He envisaged a future in which many of these factories would feature collaboration between Chinese and African entrepreneurs, as well as governments, producing consumer goods for the up-and-coming African middle class.

Zhang Shaogang, deputy director of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, attended the eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs held in Beijing on Friday. He said that China and Africa's industrial and supply chains complement each other strongly, offering vast opportunities for cooperation.

"The potential for China-Africa cooperation in emerging fields such as the digital economy, green development and artificial intelligence is immense," he said.

Janson Huang, chairman of the Sino-Tanzania Industrial Park, who also attended the conference, said that promoting the integration of industrial and supply chains between China and Africa will bring significant economic benefits to both sides.

"African countries can learn from China's experience in manufacturing and technology, and enhance their own industrialization and production capacity," Huang said, adding that "deeper integration of supply chains will help reduce logistics costs, increase trade efficiency, and promote African products in the global market."

He also expected China-Africa cooperation to drive infrastructure development in Africa, attract more investment, and create more jobs locally.

"Modernization is a vision to be achieved, but we need to put in place a whole synergy of players and stakeholders from different countries with a wealth of experience," said Tchicaya Nebert Gilmart Bienvenu, director of cooperation under the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Crafts of the Republic of Congo.

"China has a wealth of experience, and putting it together with that of Africa could produce something interesting, even very interesting," said the director.