In 2020, China-Africa trade and economic cooperation faced a lot of difficulties due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors. In the face of severe challenges, China always stood side by side with African countries to ensure that cooperation in various fields continue unabated with stronger confidence.

First, China and Africa kept enhancing cooperation in the fight against the pandemic. President Xi Jinping and African leaders jointly convened the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19, fully demonstrating that China and Africa are friends that have their fortunes closely inter-connected and back each other up. When the pandemic just broke out, some African countries provided China with a large amount of epidemic-response supplies, including face masks, protective goggles and medical gloves, lending China strong support in the fight against COVID-19. Since COVID-19 emerged in Africa, China has provided multiple batches of emergency epidemic-response supplies to African countries, sent medical experts to 16 African countries. Chinese enterprises and 46 Chinese medical teams in Africa have joined the local communities in fighting against the virus. The construction of the headquarters of the African CDC has started ahead of schedule. China has also pledged that once the development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccine is completed in China, African countries and other developing countries will be among the first to benefit.

Secondly, bilateral trade has gradually stabilised, demonstrating the resilience of China-Africa trade. From January to November 2020, bilateral trade between China and Africa amounted to US$167.8 billion, with a decline 8.5 percentage points narrower than that in the first half of the year. In terms of bilateral trade, South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are China's top five trading partners in Africa. In terms of products, the trade volume of mineral products, machinery and equipment, and base metals (iron and steel, copper, aluminum, etc.) and base metal products ranked the top three, and the trade volume of major commodities remained basically stable. Particularly noteworthy is that the value of China's agricultural imports from Africa increased by 4.4% year on year, maintaining positive growth for four consecutive years.

Third, Chinese investment in all sectors of African economy grew slightly, which speaks to Chinese enterprises’ confidence in the African market. From January to November 2020, China’s non-all-sector direct investment flow in Africa was US$2.8 billion, up 0.04% year-on-year. Region-wise, the investment flow in east, north, and central west Africa increased by 22.7%, 15.4%, and 0.6% year-on-year. Country-wise, Chinese enterprises started new investment in 47 African countries, while investment in 17 countries increased by more than 10%. Sector-wise, Chinese enterprises’ investment more than doubled in wholesale and retail; scientific and technological services; transportation and warehousing; residential services, repair, and other services; and health and social services.

Fourth, China-Africa infrastructure cooperation continued to deepen. From January to November 2020, Chinese enterprises entered into new construction contracts worth US$55.1 billion in Africa, up 13.3% year-on-year. This number demonstrated the two sides’ strong willingness to cooperate in infrastructure. A number of major projects of bilateral concern progressed steadily, including Phase 2 of Abuja-Keffi-Lafia-Makurdi Road and the CBD project of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.

Fifth, China and Africa continued to expand cooperation in emerging sectors. Facing the impact of the pandemic, Chinese enterprises, enabled by cloud technologies, shared experience in big data, cloud computing, mobile payment, and other digital technologies with African countries, held online trade fairs and promotion events, and invited African countries to merchandise their specialties via livestreaming. These cooperation measures contributed to tracking, preventing, and controlling the pandemic in Africa, while serving as exploration for new areas to develop China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. Thank you.