Local workers dry coffee beans in a coffee farm in Ethiopia. Ethiopian coffee is popular among Chinese consumers (ZHANG YU)

The China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, set to open its doors on June 27, is a practical measure included in the eight major initiatives for furthering China-Africa cooperation announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

The expo is co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Hunan Provincial People’s Government, and will be held every two years, with Hunan Province designated as its permanent venue. The first expo in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, adopted the theme “Win-Win Cooperation for a Closer China-Africa Economic and Trade Partnership.”

The expo represents a new mechanism for China-Africa cooperation under the framework of FOCAC, providing a new platform for implementing the FOCAC initiatives. Its successful convening has many important implications.

Improving cooperation mechanisms

Over the years of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, a number of sound mechanisms have been established. Among them, FOCAC is the most important mechanism guiding China-Africa cooperation. With the current increasingly complicated global geopolitics and macro-economic situation, China-Africa cooperation mechanisms need to be further enriched and improved to better adapt to a changing world. Compared with other China-initiated international cooperation organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, FOCAC has been operating at a lower level, with relatively incomplete mechanisms. China-Africa cooperation mechanisms are not responding sufficiently to the new developments of African integration, with cooperation mostly carried out on a bilateral basis.

In this context, it is necessary that cooperation is carried out at more levels, rather than solely driven by the central governments. Various entities, such as local governments and non-governmental organizations, should have a bigger role to play.

This expo is one of the initiatives to improve these mechanisms. It is the first regular international economic and trade platform to be hosted by Hunan at the national level. The expo will not only promote trade and economic cooperation between Hunan and African countries, but also set a good example for other regions of China to explore new ways of trade and economic cooperation with African countries based on their actual conditions. In this way, a network of mechanisms will be formed, with the Central Government as the core and local governments as support pillars. This coordinated model is sure to take China-Africa economic and trade cooperation to a higher level. Moreover, the expo features pragmatic cooperation, such as cooperation on specific projects. If such pragmatic cooperation succeeds in bringing benefits to both China and Africa, it is in a good position to become a sustaining event, an expo that never closes. Compared with some ineffectual “talk-shops” conferences, this pragmatic cooperation model is sure to be more effective.

Expanding opening up

At present, globalization is facing a setback with some Western countries pursuing trade protectionism. In the current global value chain, trade protectionism will cause greater harm to developing countries. As a responsible developing country, China will continue to expand opening up to the rest of the world and take practical actions to safeguard the stability of the global economy and the legitimate interests of developing countries. To this end, China has demonstrated its resolution to further open up its market at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and in the State Council’s 2019 Report on the Work of the Government. A number of measures, including the adoption of the Foreign Investment Law, have been taken.

Economic and trade cooperation with Africa is an important part of China’s opening up to the rest of the world. The expo will become one of the platforms for China to upgrade its opening up and serve as a declaration that China will remain a champion of the sound development of globalization. With a large number of participants conducting exhibitions and carrying out in-depth exchanges, the expo will help form consensuses on cooperation and promote more open, inclusive and mutually beneficial cooperation. African countries may benefit by involving themselves deeper in the global value chain and connect their benefits with the rest of world.

The expo is also attended by representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations agencies in China, the African Union, and the World Trade Organization. This demonstrates the concerns of the international community on maintaining normal and healthy global economic cooperation and trade. Strengthened communication and understanding among these organizations will help maintain the multilateral system of world trade, enhance the diversified development of international cooperation, and provide predictable stability in a very uncertain world.

Mutual growth

The expo will also promote the economic growth of countries along the Belt and Road routes via China’s high-quality development. China’s economy has been in a “new normal” stage since 2014, with its growth shifting from an ultra-high to a medium-high or medium rate. The slowdown of China’s economic growth and restructuring will significantly affect the demand of the global consumer market and the scale and structure of China’s outbound investment. But the “new normal” also means that China’s economic development has entered a new era of high-quality development, transitioning from pursuing economic expansion to structural optimization. This requires China to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of its industries and continue to climb in the global value chain.

The expo is a practical platform for upgrading China-Africa cooperation to a higher level, and pragmatic cooperation formed at the expo will help upgrade China-Africa cooperation from general commodity trade to industrial capacity cooperation and trade of processed goods.

Moreover, high-quality development means changing consumer demands in China, resulting in import of a large amount of high-quality consumer goods, in addition to equipment, technology and other resources that are in short supply in China. Cooperation reached at the expo will help expand the import of quality goods produced in Africa. This provides wider choices for Chinese people in search of improved lifestyles, while providing an export market for African countries.

The world today is undergoing great development, change and adjustment. While the Chinese people are working to realize their “Chinese Dream,” the African people are working toward the Agenda 2063 for their African aspiration. These highly compatible development strategies are driving China-Africa trade and economic cooperation into a new era.

For most African countries, a steady growth is expected in the foreseeable future, with potential for increased consumption. A demographic dividend will emerge on the continent, with a large number of young skilled workers. The rapid growth of population in Africa has brought about a higher demand for urbanization, which, in combination with the demographic dividend, will expand the scale of consumption and form a positive interaction with economic growth.

With better connectivity, thanks to improved infrastructure, the African continent will be more efficient in mobilizing factors of production. The optimization of the economic policy environment of most African countries is growing, and these countries are more open to the rest of the world. In addition, Africa’s security situation is improving and better governance is seen in many countries. These factors will bring China and Africa closer in their pursuit for common development.

To make good use of the favorable macro conditions, however, China and African countries need to work together to implement more measures at the micro level. More innovative and pragmatic measures like this expo are needed to push China-Africa cooperation into the “golden era” mentioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

(The author is a researcher at the China-Africa Institute)

(Comments to niyanshuo@chinafrica.cn)