As African state and government leaders gathered in Beijing at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit, African business leaders focussed on the opportunities of the Chinese market. Nearly 800 Chinese and African business leaders explored ways to enhance China-Africa industrial cooperation. As a part of the 2024 Summit of FOCAC, the 8th Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs aims to pave the way for African countries to accelerate their integration into global industrial and supply chains, said Zhang Shaogang, Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT). Chinese and African entrepreneurs can leverage the platform to strengthen communication and collaboration, and work together to discover new opportunities to advance China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, said Sun Xiao, Secretary General of the China Chamber of International Commerce in Beijing.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and heads of state and government from 51 countries, as well as presidential representatives from two countries, were present at the summit’s opening ceremony. During his opening speech to the FOCAC Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to elevate bilateral ties with all African countries with ties to China to a “strategic level”. He added that China stands ready to work with Africa to implement 10 partnership actions to jointly advance modernization and that China-Africa relations be characterized as an “all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era”. A declaration on building the community and a FOCAC action plan for the next three years were adopted at the Summit. The action plan covers mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, healthcare, rural revitalization, and people's wellbeing, people-to-people exchanges, green development and common security.
To ensure the successful implementation of the 10 partnership initiatives, China will provide Africa with CNY360 billion in the next three years and duty-free treatment to all products from least developed countries with diplomatic ties with China. China will voluntarily and unilaterally open its market wider, turning it into Africa's big opportunity, President Xi noted in his keynote speech. China will help implement 30 infrastructure projects in Africa, build a multimodal sea-rail transport network that connects China's central and western regions to Africa and deepen cooperation with the continent in local currency settlement and financial technology. Also under the action plan, China will send 2,000 medical personnel and public health experts and 500 agricultural experts, implement 20 healthcare and malaria treatment programs, and 30 clean energy and green development projects, encourage Chinese businesses in Africa to create no less than 1 million local jobs, and provide 60,000 training opportunities with priority given to programs for women's empowerment and youth development.
By the end of last year, China’s direct investment in Africa had exceeded USD40 billion, making it one of the largest sources of foreign investment on the continent. Over the past three years, Chinese companies have created more than 1.1 million jobs in Africa, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Over 1,000 Chinese businesses have invested in economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa, spanning sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and logistics. The zones have significantly contributed to local tax revenues, export growth and foreign exchange earnings.
Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said that China supports and encourages Chinese and African companies to create industrial development clusters, forming a virtuous cycle of trade and investment promotion. “We will continue to heighten China-Africa connectivity, facilitate the smooth circulation of resources and elements, and ensure that the benefits of development are better shared by the peoples of both sides,” Wang said.
China has long been committed to deepening economic and trade cooperation with Africa, and the industrial ties between China and Africa have become increasingly close, said Lyu Daliang, Director of the General Administration of Customs’ Department of Statistics and Analysis. China has continued to deepen trade cooperation with African countries in recent years, with a rapid increase in the scale of both imports and exports, he said. From 2000 to 2023, trade between China and Africa expanded from less than CNY100 billion to CNY1.98 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 17.2%, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed, as reported by the China Daily.
The South China Morning Post adds that African leaders attending the Summit in Beijing have secured major deals on infrastructure financing, green energy, space cooperation and trade expansion with China in bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping. Kenya secured CNY2 billion to finance the construction of rural roads that will serve 70% of the nation’s population – part of Beijing’s revised Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to focus on “small and beautiful” projects. The East African nation also restarted talks to extend the Standard Gauge Railway from Kenya to Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Congo-Brazzaville, according to a statement by Kenyan President William Ruto.
