Logistics industry is a highlight of 2018 CIFTIS (XINHUA)

More than 646,000 visitors from 179 countries and regions with $424.27 billion of intentional deals - this is part of the achievements of the first five sessions of the China International Fair of Trade in Services (CIFTIS).

With CIFTIS and other measures, China's trade in services has grown rapidly in the past five years, with an average annual growth rate of 7.6 percent, 4.5 percentage points higher than the world's average growth rate in the same period.

CIFTIS is the world's only national-level comprehensive international services trade platform. Since May 28, 2012, it has been held annually in Beijing, five days during each session. The CIFTIS has permanent support from the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It is the only comprehensive trade fair covering 12 major areas of trade in services in the world. This year's CIFTIS, themed "Opening-up, Innovation, Intelligence and Integration," is held from May 28 to June 1.

As one of the main forums of the CIFTIS, the Fourth Africa Theme Day Forum is organized by the China-Africa Industrial Forum (CAIF).

More than 20 African countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda and Tunisia, attended the Fourth Africa Theme Day Forum, covering a range of key African service industries, including aviation, finance and tourism.

Before the opening of the CIFTIS, ChinAfrica spoke to CAIF Secretary General Cheng Zhigang to learn more about the fair and development of China-Africa trade in services. An edited excerpt of the interview follows:

ChinAfrica: Compared with previous sessions, what do you think is special about this year's CIFTIS? What are the new trends in Sino-African trade in services?

Cheng Zhigang: For this year's CIFTIS, 10 more parallel sessions will be held, and it will be larger in scale than in previous years, with more people and companies attending the fair.

Nowadays, the big data technology is playing a role in enhancing Sino-African trade in services. Despite a weak foundation, big data, Internet and information technology in Africa have been developing very fast in the past five years. In particular, countries such as Nigeria and Kenya are using big data to drive the development of new materials, e-commerce and Internet. China has provided support to promote the application of big data in industry, agriculture and other fields in Africa.

During my visit to Cote d'Ivoire last year, for example, I learnt that China's support in big data technology for electronic map-making was especially welcomed there. They had got a loan from the World Bank dedicated for big data technology development. Other African countries have also been using big data in fields including electronic map-making, land planning, transportation and construction.

What are your predictions for Sino-African trade in services?

In my view, trade in services between China and African countries is promising, especially in the fields of tourism, aviation, finance and e-commerce.

Thanks to its unique natural conditions and abundant tourism resources, Africa has witnessed the fastest development of tourism, and this has driven the development of the aviation industry. In recent years, many African countries have opened direct flights with China. Mauritius, for example, has established direct flight routes to four Chinese cities.

Cooperation in finance is promising because it is closely related to investment and trade. We welcome enhanced cooperation in this sector, and African financial institutions are also interested in setting up representative offices and even branches in China.

E-commerce is fast becoming another key area of bilateral cooperation. Last year, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba established business platform, eWTP, in Rwanda. In the future, it will further expand its business to Kenya and Ethiopia. After this breakthrough made by Alibaba, more Chinese companies are entering Africa's e-commerce sector, which is bound to promote cross-border e-commerce between China and Africa.

How has CAIF contributed to Sino-African trade in services?

Over the 10 years since the founding of CAIF, we have made efforts in many fields in Africa, including industry, agriculture and finance. In 2011, we visited some African banks, such as South Africa's Standard Bank and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, to promote renminbi settlement. We hope that they will set up branches in China to strengthen the settlement of trade between China and African countries to reduce the risk of foreign currency devaluation. At present, several major Chinese banks, including Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, operate branches in Africa.

In terms of tourism, we are proposing visa-free or visa-on-arrival visits to some African countries. A relaxed visa policy can greatly increase the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Africa, and make business cooperation more convenient. At present, countries including Morocco and Tunisia have implemented a visa-free policy for China, and countries including Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopia are implementing a visa-on-arrival or electronic visa policy for Chinese citizens.

What advantages does China have for trade in services with African countries?

As I just mentioned, China-Africa cooperation in tourism, finance and e-commerce is well established. These three areas will remain the key areas for China and African countries to develop trade in services in the future. We believe that the next three to five years will see accelerated development of trade in services.

In addition, with more and more Chinese companies and people going to Africa, we know Africa better, and Africa knows China better, too. The close relationship has promoted people-to-people exchanges and cultural communication, thus enhancing African people's affection for China to a level that no other country can reach. China is also very willing to support the development of Africa's service industry. That is why for this year's CIFTIS, we have further expanded our invitations to African exhibitors. We hope to understand their needs and provide technical and financial support in future cooperation.

What activities will be held as part of the Africa Theme Day Forum during the CIFTIS? What are the highlights compared with previous sessions of the forum?

This year, we will hold a business summit. We will invite entrepreneurs from airlines and banks, as well as logistics companies. Logistics is an important sector of the service industry, which is directly related to the growth of trade. We depend on logistics to ship products out of Africa.

From a business point of view, it is difficult for logistics companies operating in Africa to gain great economic benefits in the short term, but the future is promising. Therefore, we call for China's logistics companies to invest and operate in Africa, especially in the inland areas of Africa, to export good local products to China and import more high-quality Chinese products to Africa. This may help solve the problem of poor logistics that has been hindering the development of trade in Africa.

(Comments to lijing@chinafrica.cn)