Beijing, September 3 (Xinhua) — "African elements" are becoming increasingly common in China today. South African avocados and moisturizing creams, Ethiopian coffee beans, and Tanzanian wine can all be purchased by Chinese consumers from e-commerce platforms with just a few taps of their fingers.

This is a vivid footnote to the steady development of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. In recent years, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has demonstrated unlimited possibilities and strong vitality across trade, investment, and many other fields, with new achievements and new opportunities constantly emerging.

China has maintained its position as Africa's largest trading partner country for 15 consecutive years. According to Chinese statistics, after China-Africa trade volume hit a historic peak for the second consecutive year in 2023, China's total imports and exports with Africa in the first seven months of this year reached 1.19 trillion yuan (RMB, same below), up 5.5% year on year, setting a new record for the same period in history.

Thanks to China's opening of "green channels" for African agricultural products, accelerated inspection and quarantine, and expanded tariff exemptions, agricultural products are becoming a new highlight of China-Africa trade.

Official data show that in the first seven months of this year, China imported 25.35 billion yuan of agricultural products from Africa, up 7.2% year on year. Among these, imports of African specialty agricultural products such as sesame, flue-cured tobacco, and macadamia nuts grew by 38.8%, 32.7%, and 106.2% respectively compared with the same period last year, each accounting for more than 40% of China's total imports of such products.

China's investment in Africa is also continuing to grow. By the end of 2023, China's stock of direct investment in Africa exceeded US$40 billion, making it one of Africa's most important sources of foreign capital. Among these, China's direct investment flows to countries such as South Africa, Egypt, and Zambia have remained above US$100 million for many consecutive years.

Mao Xiaojing, director of the West Asia and Africa Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said that China's investment in Africa is gradually expanding from traditional sectors such as textiles to new fields such as automobile manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

As trade and investment cooperation deepens, China's high-quality technologies and new business forms in fields such as industrial production, commerce and logistics, the digital economy, and clean energy are also continuously entering Africa.

A relevant person in charge of China Salt Group said in an interview with China News Service that the company's project in Senegal uses raw sea salt obtained from local seawater through solar evaporation as raw material and produces refined salt through multiple crushing, washing, and drying processes. During trial production, the project trained a large number of production technicians and operators for African salt companies and also promoted the local application of Chinese salt-making technology.

Analysts believe that the strong vitality of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation mainly stems from the strong economic complementarity between the two sides, which has laid a solid foundation for cooperation.

A series of measures aimed at promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation have been implemented intensively, also helping China-Africa economic and trade cooperation move to a higher level. For example, the "Eight Major Initiatives" announced at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation explicitly proposed implementing an industrial promotion initiative to encourage Chinese enterprises to expand investment in Africa, and implementing a trade facilitation initiative to expand imports of African goods.

In addition, China has also approved and implemented 26 trade promotion projects, including the comprehensive fishing port facilities in Ghana and the Nouakchott overpass in Mauritania, as well as 11 industrialization and employment promotion projects, including the Madagascar highway, Zambia power facilities, and Sudan vocational training center. Multiple projects under the "Trade Promotion Project" and "Investment-Driven Project" continue to advance, paving the way for the smooth development of China-Africa trade and investment cooperation.

At present, both the Chinese and African economies are showing positive momentum. Official data show that China's GDP grew by 5.0% year on year in the first half of the year. According to World Bank forecasts, Africa's economy is expected to rebound in 2024, rising from 2.6% last year to 3.4% this year and to 3.8% by 2025. The African Development Bank is even more optimistic, believing that Africa's economic growth will rebound to 3.7% this year and further rise to 4.3% in 2025.

Analysts believe that at a time when the world economic recovery is slow and uncertainties and destabilizing factors are increasing, the continued positive momentum of the Chinese and African economies brings broad space for strengthening economic and trade cooperation and makes the prospects for cooperation even more worth anticipating.