Booming trade with Africa offers promising future

Hunan province makes strides in enhancing business ties with foreign nations

The third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo kicks off in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, on Thursday. This vital platform boosts China-Africa business cooperation and promotes high-level opening-up.

Since the first CAETE in 2019, Hunan has accelerated the establishment of long-term mechanisms for exchanges and cooperation with Africa. It has also achieved a number of landmark results in areas such as hybrid rice, equipment manufacturing, energy, mining and the construction of trade platforms for African countries.

As bilateral trade enters the fast lane, more Hunan products are entering Africa. Products in fields such as small agricultural machinery, energy and rice are taking root in the African market.

In 2022, Hunan's trade with Africa reached a total of 55.66 billion yuan ($7.72 billion), a year-on-year increase of 42.8 percent. From January to April, Hunan's trade with Africa achieved a growth rate of 90 percent, a record high.

Promoting mutual trade is an important measure for Hunan to achieve significant results in economic and trade cooperation with Africa. In recent years, Hunan has deepened its cooperation with international organizations, such as the United Nations International Trade Center; assisted the market access of six categories of agricultural products in five African countries; expanded the import of African products; cultivated 10 import and export industrial chains such as coffee, nuts and small agricultural machinery and sold hundreds of African products in major shopping malls. With the explosive growth of trade, Hunan and African countries are expanding cooperation in emerging fields such as digitalization, aerospace and finance.

Industrial cooperation

In Hengyang, Hunan, a dozen 330-kilovolt transformers and reactors have completed tests in the production workshop of TBEA — an international service provider of system solutions for the global energy industry — and are about to be shipped to Zambia and Nigeria.

This batch of products will serve basic power construction in Zambia and Nigeria.

TBEA's success is a microcosm of the industrial interaction and complementary nature between Hunan and African countries.

In Tanzania and Madagascar, Hunan enterprises have built agricultural zones and promote the industrial chains of rice, soybeans, corn and other crops.

Hunan's advantageous industries such as electricity, machinery and construction have helped African countries to improve their infrastructure, agricultural production and local productivity. In Cote d'Ivoire, Rwanda and other countries, Hunan has invested in rubber, palm oil and dried chili pepper industries, exploring and forming a new model of integrated cooperation among production, industry and trade, and allowing African specialty products to enter thousands of households in China.

Agriculture is a key area of cooperation between China and Africa. Hunan enterprises have developed suitable hybrid rice varieties based on the soil and climate in countries such as Madagascar, trained local farmers in planting techniques and tried planting in 16 African countries.

To solve the bottleneck of economic and trade exchanges between China and Africa, Hunan promotes mutual benefit finance, which included building the China-Africa Financial Innovation Cooperation Center, piloting cross-border transactions of small currencies in Africa and opening banking transactions for six African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana and Zambia.

Hunan has also deepened cooperation with Africa by launching development funds, guiding financial institutions to support supply chain finance, production and processing, trade procurement, cross-border logistics and overseas warehouse enterprise projects in Africa.

Local advantages

Established in September 2020, the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone plays a key role in enhancing cooperation between China and Africa and stimulating reform and innovation.

"Based on the two national-level platforms for cooperation with Africa — the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo and the zone for deep cooperation between China and Africa — Hunan is committed to developing a new model of foreign trade for inland regions that are 'not bordering the sea or neighboring other countries,'" said a representative from the Hunan Provincial Commerce Department.

To accelerate the high-quality development of trade between Hunan and Africa and provide convenient conditions for trade, Hunan is expanding channels for cooperation with Africa.

It has opened passenger routes from Changsha to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and freight routes from Changsha to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The province has also established the first rail-sea transport channel for African countries. The journey to basic ports in East Africa has been shortened by 10 days compared to the traditional river-sea route, assisting the exchange of goods between China and Africa.