Insights丨African scholars laud cooperation between African and Chinese enterprises

(ECNS) -- The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday with the theme "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future." The summing marks another milestone in the history of China-Africa relations, and embarks on a new journey of China-Africa cooperation.

Mwangi Wachira, former economist at the World Bank and advisor to the Government of Kenya, and Paul Frimpong, executive director and Senior Research Fellow of the Africa-China Centre for Policy & Advisory, were invited to share their insights on China-Africa cooperation during exclusive interviews with China News Network.

Reflecting on the past forty years of Africa-China friendship since China's opening-up, Wachira highly recognized the achievements of bilateral relations, saying that it has changed the face of the continent. "It has a dramatic impact on the country, a positive impact on the country."

In his view, the bilateral trade volume and China's direct investment in Africa are excellent examples of this partnership.

According to data from China's Ministry of Commerce, in 2023, China-Africa trade reached $282.1 billion, up nearly 11 percent compared with 2021, and setting a new historical high for the second consecutive year. In the first half of 2024, China imported goods worth 60.1 billion dollars from Africa, up 14 percent year-on-year.

China's investment cooperation with Africa has been progressing steadily and healthily. Its annual direct investment in Africa's manufacturing industry totals more than $400 million, and the number for infrastructure industry exceeds $37 billion, significantly contributing to Africa's industrialization and economic diversification.

Frimpong said that in the scope of Africa-China relations, bilateral cooperation has expanded to many fields. He also shared his impression of the Chinese enterprises. He said that there are numerous, hundreds and thousands of Chinese enterprises at different levels operating in Ghana. They integrate themselves into the society, living and interacting with the local community.

He further analyzed the current state of Africa-China cooperation and emphasized the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although SMEs receive less attention compared to large state-owned enterprises, of 10,000 Chinese companies operating on the continent, 70 percent are SMEs, and it is this large group of Chinese that the Africans encounter and serves as an important channel for African people to understand China.

The opinion was echoed by Frimpong, who also believes that SMEs in Africa and China play an important role in bilateral relations. He took the oil and gas industry as an example to further explain the view. According to Frimpong, the Ghanaian companies need to find partners to cooperate with and establish connections in the industry while some Chinese SMEs are also in the large value chain of oil and gas, some responsible for processing and selling goods. Cooperation between these two groups can bring them opportunities to participate in large-scale intergovernmental cooperation projects.

Therefore, he believed that cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa and China can be significant. Moreover, he noticed that there are cooperative experiences for them to learn in different fields.