A special conference on promoting trade with Africa was held in Changsha on January 19. The conference announced that, Hunan's import from and export to Africa in 2023 reached 55.67 billion CNY, maintaining the rankings of eighth nationwide and first in the central and western regions of China. The average annual growth rate in the past three years (2021-2023) was 23.1 percent.

Hunan's African partners were mainly South Africa, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, and Ghana. Hunan mainly exported electrical machinery, electrical appliances, down and feather products, wig products, and mechanical appliances and parts; and, imported ore sand, mineral slag, precious metal, and copper.

The Hunan-Africa economic and trade cooperation kept growing and Hunan's foreign trade with Africa, specifically in terms of agricultural products achieved new breakthroughs. The mutton import access to China project contracted with Madagascar during the Third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo held in June 2023 will fulfill its first order in 2024. Hunan's import of African agricultural products and food totaled 340 million CNY in 2023, up 351.2 percent.

Hunan's trade with Africa via market procurement saw rapid growth, amounting to 2.335 billion CNY in 2023. This figure accounted for 34.46 percent of the total, rising 11 percentage points over the previous year.

A few days ago, the State Council approved the General Plan on Constructing the China-Africa Economic and Trade In-depth Cooperation Pilot Zone which was put forward by the Hunan Provincial People's Government and the Ministry of Commerce. Next, related measures and supporting policies will be rolled out in multiple respects to enhance Hunan's trade with Africa to a new level.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn