As a “bridgehead” for cooperation with Africa, Jinhua welcomes the wonderful gathering of Chinese and African guests. From November 8 to 9, as an important supporting event under the framework of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, the 2024 China-Africa Economic, Trade and Cultural Forum was held here.
“Jinhua will uphold the policy concept of “real, friendly and honest” towards Africa and the correct view of justice and interests, and make all-weather friends with the African people with a more open attitude and more pragmatic measures, and pursue the dream of modernization together.” At the opening ceremony, Zhu Chonglie, secretary of the municipal party committee, on behalf of the municipal party committee, government and the people of the city, warmly welcomed the guests from afar and issued the initiative of “promoting cooperation between the two sides to a higher quality, deeper level and wider field”.
The 2024 China-Africa Economic, Trade and Cultural Forum is a vivid local practice to implement the spirit of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. During the event, China and Africa showed their latest cooperation results and launched new cooperation initiatives: the results of the 2024 China-Africa Cultural Silk Road Exchange Month were displayed, Zhejiang Normal University and the China-Africa Chamber of Commerce released their research results on Africa and the special report “China-Africa Enterprise Cooperation to Promote the Upgrading of the African Agricultural Industrial Chain”, the China-Africa (Jinhua) Agricultural Science and Technology Park was unveiled, the first batch of companies settled in Yiwu China-Africa Building signed contracts, and a number of Zhejiang-Africa cooperation projects were successfully signed.
From economic and trade exchanges to infrastructure construction, from vocational education to academic research, from industrial upgrading to public health, the urgent desire of China and Africa to work together to modernize can be heard everywhere inside and outside the venue.
At the opening ceremony of the 2024 China-Africa Economic, Trade and Cultural Forum, representatives from Algeria Agricultural Logistics Corporation, Zhejiang Huali Overseas Industrial Development Co., Ltd., Jinhua Chamber of Commerce for Africa and other enterprises and institutions attended the project signing ceremony.
A total of 28 projects were signed at this event, covering trade, overseas investment and contracting projects, with a total contract amount of 47.912 billion yuan. Among them, the largest contract amount is the “Yiwu-Africa Small Commodity Procurement Project”, with an amount of nearly 20 billion yuan, which will provide new energy products, stainless steel kitchenware and other commodities to Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and other countries.
Over the past 7 years, Jinhua has carried out more than 60 China-Africa cultural exchange and cooperation activities, covering more than 40 African countries and more than 100 million African people, forming a deeper and larger China-Africa “Cultural Silk Road” community. Kenya’s Deputy Ambassador to China Linai said that Kenya and China have a long bilateral relationship and have continuously deepened their friendly relations for 61 years. China-Africa cultural and tourism cooperation and exchanges provide opportunities for mutual sharing and are an important way to deepen cooperation between the two countries.
Data show that since the beginning of this year, the number of inbound tourists from key African countries in our city’s cultural exchanges has increased significantly, among which Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritius and other countries have increased by 200%, and Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Uganda and other countries have increased by nearly 100%.
Source: Jinhua Daily