The China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Africa (Morocco) will be held from June 10 to 12 in Casablanca. The event is co-hosted by the Secretariat of the Organizing Committee of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) and Morocco's Ministry of Industry and Trade. This marks Hunan's first large-scale overseas economic and trade event in Africa following China's full implementation of zero-tariff measures for all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations.

Hunan has two national-level platforms—the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo and the Pioneering Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation. Leveraging the platforms, the province has persistently explored and innovated over the years, developing a replicable and scalable "Hunan Model" for long-term China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. This has driven the shift in Hunan-Africa cooperation from short-term exhibition matchmaking to long-term industrial cultivation, injecting robust momentum into building an even closer China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.

On April 29, 2025, Moroccan workers operate within the workshop of the Aeolon Morocco factory (Chinese-invested) in Nador. (Photo provided by interviewee)

Economic and Trade Cooperation Upgraded and Enhanced

Specialized discussions on key indicators, item-by-item verification of acceptance materials... Recently, Wan Hua, chairperson of China CEC Engineering Corporation, has been leading a team intensively preparing, as he will lead a team to Morocco in June to conduct acceptance checks for the company's EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) projects: the 5,850 t/pa battery-grade cobalt sulfate green environmental protection project in Marrakech and the seawater desalination project in Nador, Morocco.

"Chinese enterprises have provided us with a new path that synergizes development and environmental protection, aiding Morocco's green and low-carbon transformation with advanced technology, and moreover, their rigorous, professional, and efficient contract fulfillment gives us full confidence in project acceptance and great anticipation for long-term cooperation," said Imad TOUMI, president of Morocco's Managem Group, the project partner.

This serves as a vivid microcosm of the upgraded and enhanced economic and trade cooperation between Hunan and Morocco. Morocco is Hunan's core trading partner and a significant source of imports in Africa. In recent years, Hunan-Morocco cooperation has expanded from traditional agricultural product trade to diverse fields such as industrial environmental protection, high-end equipment, and personnel exchanges. The cooperation level keeps elevating with richer contents.

Data from Changsha Customs Authority shows that in the first four months of this year, Hunan's imports from Morocco reached 99.079 million CNY, a year-on-year increase of 33.7%. Among them, imports of agricultural products surged 250.5% to 2.869 million CNY. Moroccan-origin raw materials for biomedicine, such as rosemary, are continuously shipped to Hunan, providing a stable and reliable raw material supply for Hunan's biomedical industry.

While Morocco's high-quality specialty products enter Hunan, empowering provincial industrial upgrading, on the other side, Morocco, acting as a "golden springboard" connecting Europe and Africa, has become a crucial fulcrum for Hunan enterprises venturing into European and African markets. SANY Group entered the Moroccan market with motor graders as early as 2002, and today its microgrid business has achieved deep localization, facilitating the green transformation of local mines. Zoomlion's equipment is widely used in key Moroccan projects like the construction of venues for the 2030 World Cup. This April, its Moroccan subsidiary opened in Casablanca. Financial institutions like the Hunan Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China continuously assist Hunan enterprises operating in Morocco in alleviating financing difficulties, resolving pain points such as accounts receivable lock-up, high financing costs, and sluggish cross-border capital turnover, providing solid financial support for enterprises to deeply cultivate the local market.

"Morocco's business environment is mature and stable, and its industrial structure is highly complementary with Hunan. This is the core reason we chose it as the first stop for this year's 'going global' initiative," said Shen Yumou, director of the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province. The three-day CAETE in Africa (Morocco), themed "China and Africa Together Toward the Future," focuses on key areas such as the entire agricultural industrial chain, equipment manufacturing, green energy, and the import and export of specialty goods. Through pragmatic measures like platform outreach, policy alignment, and targeted industrial matchmaking, it aims to smooth two-way trade channels between Hunan and Africa, reduce cross-border cooperation costs, and promote mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

Currently, preparations have entered the sprint stage, with over 300 exhibiting enterprises registered, setting a new historical high for the CAETE in Africa series. Yang Yi, general manager of Hunan Yufei Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., has been leading efforts since the beginning of the year to define country-specific products, finalize exhibition plans, and coordinate processes, engaging in advance online negotiations with multiple Moroccan trading companies. He said, "We look forward to incorporating more high-quality Moroccan products like essential oils and argan oil into the 'Quality African Goods' public brand system, enabling more great Moroccan goods to conveniently enter the Chinese market under the African brand umbrella."

Multi-point Efforts for Long-term Deep Cultivation

As a crucial national-level platform for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, the CAETE was established in Hunan in 2019. Held biennially, it has successfully concluded four sessions to date, with a cumulative total of 512 signed projects amounting to 64.71 billion USD. The expo has become a "golden bridge" for targeted matchmaking between Chinese and African enterprises.

Starting in 2024, to deepen the implementation of China-Africa cooperation and broaden connection channels for localities and enterprises, the expo launched the Africa serial events for the first time during its off-year, successively taking place in Kenya and Nigeria. This year, the CAETE goes overseas again, landing in Morocco in the first half of the year and heading to South Africa in the second half. The Morocco session will feature an innovative exhibition model, departing from previous one-way promotion approaches to closely aligning with local industrial upgrading needs. It involves comprehensively identifying the overseas intentions of Chinese enterprises beforehand and mapping local cooperation demands in Morocco, achieving highly efficient supply-demand matching and pragmatic, effective matchmaking.

Xiao Hao, executive deputy director of the Institute of African Studies at Hunan University, noted that extending the platform overseas—from hosting exhibitions in Changsha to regular overseas layouts—represents an innovative exploration by Hunan to extend national-level platforms beyond borders and build a long-term, effective mechanism for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. "This year's activities place greater emphasis on targeted matchmaking and pragmatic implementation, strengthening regularized economic and trade connections, and propelling the expo's shift from 'headquarters-driven' to 'multi-point efforts,' and from 'short-term grand events' to 'long-term matchmaking mechanisms'."

This innovative practice has also received high recognition from Moroccan experts. Nasser BOUCHIBA, president of the Africa China Cooperation Association for Development in Morocco, remarked that the CAETE in Africa (Morocco) coincides with the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Morocco strategic partnership. It will accelerate the entry of high-quality Moroccan products into the Chinese market, help Hunan's advantageous industries deeply cultivate North Africa, deepen industrial chain integration, and inject new momentum into the high-quality development of China-Morocco and China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.

Data provided by the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province shows the significant effectiveness of the CAETE's "going global" initiative. The preceding Kenya serial event resulted in 37 on-site signed projects worth 891 million USD, 34 matched projects, and three published outcomes.

Changsha Sunlight Agricultural Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd. was a direct beneficiary, securing a four million CNY foreign trade order from Uganda in one go. "We signed up immediately for the Morocco event, hoping to leverage it to expand the North African market and build a more stable cross-border cooperation bridge," said company head Zhou Zhi.

It was learned that the CAETE in Africa (South Africa) special session will be held in the second half of the year. The event will be dedicated to promoting Hunan's construction machinery, new energy vehicles, and high-end chemical equipment into the South African market, while simultaneously introducing South African specialty products to China, achieving two-way unimpeded flow.

Leveraging its intelligent manufacturing strengths, Zoomlion continues to export high-efficiency, low-consumption green equipment to Africa, deeply serving local infrastructure construction and industrial upgrading. Last year, Zoomlion's African regional revenue grew by over 157% year on year.

"The 'CAETE in Africa' has built an efficient matchmaking platform for Hunan enterprises, helping us precisely match needs and quickly implement projects," said Liu Jianqiang, Zoomlion marketing director and deputy general manager of its overseas company. He expressed that Zoomlion will take the Morocco special session as a new starting point to deepen localized deployment, making "Made in Hunan" a prominent calling card for China-Africa cooperation.

In recent years, guided by the China Africa Economic and Trade Expo and supported by the Pioneering Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation, Hunan has focused on core pathways such as overseas extension of the exhibition platform, pioneering new forms of barter trade, connecting full-chain logistics corridors, and enabling two-way empowerment of advantageous industries. The province has continuously advanced innovation in mechanisms, models, and pathways, creating a replicable and scalable "Hunan Model" for China-Africa cooperation.

Hunan has yielded significant results in cooperation with Africa. In 2025, Hunan's trade volume with Africa reached 58 billion CNY, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. This scale has ranked first in central and western regions of China for seven consecutive years, reaching 18.16 billion CNY in the first four months of this year, up 8.8% year on year. The number of Hunan enterprises filing for outbound investment in Africa has multiplied, and 13 cities and one prefecture provincewide have established counterpart cooperation with 28 African countries. Hunan's new-type barter trade with Africa covers 11 countries, with 338 transactions completed since 2024, totaling 346 million CNY. In 2025, Hunan's transaction volume topped the nation.

Shen Yumou remarked that Hunan will continue to leverage the two major national-level platforms as a grip, taking the CAETE's regular overseas presence as an opportunity, and focusing on key areas like agriculture, energy and minerals, infrastructure, and tourism. Hunan will accelerate the layout of overseas warehouses and integrated production-industrial-trade projects in Africa, cultivate new models and formats in trade, investment, and financial cooperation, continuously enhance the level of cooperation with Africa, persistently refine the "Hunan Model," and drive China-Africa economic and trade cooperation from "quantitative growth" towards a "qualitative leap," contributing Hunan's strength to building an even closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Chinese source: swt.hunan.gov.cn