Launch ceremony of Nanchang Office of the China-Africa Business Council in October (COURTESY PHOTO)

For Simon Pierre Adovelande, Benin's Ambassador to China, the map of his country is shaped like a key. "Only with this key can the door of the African continent be opened," he said at the Belt and Road Jiangxi Enterprises Going into Africa International Development Forum, held on October 12 in Nanchang, capital of southeast China's Jiangxi Province. Two other African ambassadors from Mali and Burundi were also on hand to introduce their respective country's investment opportunities at the forum. 

The African ambassadors were foremost attracted by Jiangxi's unique assets. The landlocked province located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has been actively leveraging its industrial advantages like ecological agriculture and organic foods, along with photovoltaic solar energy, to promote the international expansion of its companies, with an eye on Africa. 

Strength in numbers 

Statistics show that economic cooperation between Jiangxi and African countries has grown steadily over recent years. Africa is now the province's fifth largest trading partner, sixth largest export market and the third largest source of imports, in addition to being the largest overseas market for its companies' "going-global" strategies, according to Yin Meigen, Member of the Standing Committee of Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. 

In the first seven months of this year, Jiangxi's imports and exports to Africa reached a total of 15.08 billion yuan ($2.18 billion), a year-on-year increase of 35.9 percent, he noted. Moreover, Jiangxi is the only Chinese province to have set up two agricultural demonstration centers on the African continent, in Togo and Equatorial Guinea. 

Be it infrastructure, modern agriculture, IT, international education or traditional Chinese medicine, Jiangxi's industries, technologies and capital have great potential for cooperation in the African market, experts say. 

However, the risks involved in launching new projects on the continent require a new cooperation-based approach, according to stakeholders at the forum. 

"The multiple challenges posed by the complex geopolitical and political risks of African countries mean that only through unity and multipartite cooperation can we complement each other and achieve win-win development," said Zhongyang Construction Group President Chen Enbin. Zhongyang Construction Group is one of the initiators of the Nanchang Office of the 

China-Africa Business Council (CABC), which was officially launched during the forum. 

With the support from Jiangxi International Economic and Cultural Exchange Center, CABC Nanchang Office will seek to better use CABC's assets to create a high-quality platform for Jiangxi companies to go global, said Chen, who will serve as the first director of the office. It will empower more companies in Jiangxi to join hands and actively explore the African market, he added. 

"About 200 companies in Jiangxi are doing business in the African market. We hope to bring together all relevant sectors and speak with one voice on the issues of Sino-African economic and trade cooperation," Chen told ChinAfrica. 

According to Yu Yingyi, International Project Manager with the Zhongyang Construction Group, bringing together companies makes it possible for a complete industrial chain to take shape. 

"Previously, our company used to withdraw from the project as soon as construction was completed. Today, design, construction and management companies work together in the long term as part of a single project. As these companies are grouped under one umbrella, they share information and experience more effectively," Yu told ChinAfrica. 

Jiangxi is not the only province to embrace this approach. Earlier this year, the CABC Hangzhou Office was established in neighboring Zhejiang Province. Up to now, 23 provinces in China have signed cooperation agreements with the National Development and Reform Commission, with the specific aim of exploring cooperation with African countries. 

Moreover, during the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in early September, various meetings on industrial capacity and investment cooperation brought together Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Jiangsu and Jiangxi with Senegal, Ethiopia and Zambia respectively. 

Projects with purpose 

Chen confirmed that the new Nanchang office's main priority was agriculture. In fact, earlier this year, Zhongyang Construction Group bought an agro-industrial park in Zambia with the aim to undertake ecological agriculture. Using advanced technologies and sufficient funding, it is estimated that this massive park will be able to meet 20 percent of Zambia's total grain needs. 

At the FOCAC Beijing Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to launch eight major initiatives in close collaboration with African countries in the next three years and beyond. In fact, the first initiative aims at helping African countries in achieving food security by 2030. In addition, during this summit, Partnership for Investment and Growth in Africa (PIGA) organized a meeting on this very issue to explore investment opportunities in agriculture between China and Africa. 

"We see great potential for cooperation in this sector, and we want to bring together all relevant forces among our members, including construction, agriculture, livestock and even rural tourism companies. We are also seeking support from funds like PIGA," said Chen, adding that the most important thing now was to find good projects in which to invest. 

For Ambassador Adovelande, projects such as Zambia's agro-industrial park could serve as an inspiration for his country Benin. "Project financing has never been an issue, unlike project quality. I think that this project in Zambia can serve as a very good model. There is a huge potential for cooperation, and this visit to Nanchang is only the first step," he told ChinAfrica. 

(Comments to glj@chinafrica.cn)

Partnership for Investment and Growth in Africa (PIGA) 

PIGA is a partnership of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland's Department for International Development (DFID), China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, China-Africa Development Fund and the International Trade Center. 

It aims to increase investment-led exports and local development by increasing foreign investments and business partnerships in two productive sectors, agro-processing and light manufacturing, in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia. 

PIGA is a component of Invest Africa, a large DFID program linking private sector investors, buyers, financiers and governments in several African countries, to boost manufacturing and create jobs by increasing foreign direct investment.