On November 8, 2023 China (Zhejiang) Forum on China-Africa Economic and Trade Relations and China-Africa Cultural Cooperation and Exchange Month, themed on “People-to-people communication, mutual cultural understanding and win-win cooperation”, kicked off in Jinhua. On the same day, 26 cooperation projects with Africa were signed, with the sum of cooperation amounting to 60.19 billion yuan.

Zhejiang is the highland of China-Africa cooperation. The economic and trade exchanges between Zhejiang and Africa are very frequent. In the first three quarters, Zhejiang’s total import and export to Africa amounted to 288.84 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1% year-on-year. Africa is also a hot spot for investment. In recent years, Zhejiang’s investment in Africa has been growing rapidly, and has formed industrial clusters mainly in wholesale and retail, and construction and manufacturing. At the forum, the contracts for the “Belt and Road” China-Africa Economic and Trade Industrial Park, Yiwu-Africa Commodity Procurement, Egypt Amunet wind power, China-Africa film and television cultural cooperation and other 26 projects were signed. These projects are related not only to trade and infrastructure construction, but also to the field of culture and tourism, which indicates more opportunities for China-Africa cooperation.

China-Africa economic and trade cooperation is booming and extending from traditional trade and engineering construction to emerging areas such as digital economy, green development and finance, which has put forward more demands for public service provision. In this regard, the Forum released three latest achievements in the building of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation mechanisms. Among them, the Chinese Secretariat of China-African Union Commercial Legal Cooperation Committee (Zhejiang) and the Chinese Secretariat of China-Egypt Commercial Legal Cooperation Committee (Zhejiang) will play the role of commercial legal experts of China and Africa, strengthen legal cooperation between the two sides in responses to frictions, intellectual property rights, mediation and arbitration, etc., and help enterprises to prevent risks and resolve disputes. The Zhejiang Liaison Office of China-Africa Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry will focus on high-level top-level design, high-level exhibition platforms and high-quality trade and financial services to provide comprehensive and professional services for Zhejiang enterprises to carry out economic and trade cooperation with Africa.

At the forum, China-Africa Capacity Cooperation Development Report (2022-2023) and China-Africa Trade Jinhua Index were released.