Hunan builds highland for African trade

CHANGSHA — Hunan province has striven to build a highland for economic and trade cooperation with Africa.

In 2020, Hunan’s trade volume with Africa reached 28.84 billion yuan ($4.46 billion), with the highest growth rate compared with other provinces in China.

In the first half of this year, trade between Hunan and Africa amounted to 17.21 billion yuan, up 36 percent year-on-year.

Changsha, capital of Hunan, has been at the forefront of Sino-African economic and trade activities, having achieved rapid growth in trade with Africa in recent years.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Changsha’s total import from and export to Africa reached about $3.79 billion, seeing an average annual increase of 30.7 percent. Meanwhile, Changsha has invested in 24 projects in Africa with a total contract value of about $440 million.

The first phase of ChinaAfrica Economic and Trade Cooperation Promotion Innovation Demonstration Park has been completed in the Gaoqiao Grand Market and put in use, with 98 leading enterprises and business associations participating.

A trade center was also established in the Gaoqiao market to facilitate the distribution, processing and trading of nonresource African products.

Since its launch last year, the center has generated a total trade volume of $272 million.

Hunan has also been accelerating the building of a logistics network of combined “land, sea and air” transport. International passageways between China and Africa have been expanding to make the flow of goods smoother.

Meanwhile, two passenger routes starting from Changsha, one to Nairobi, Kenya and the other to Luanda, Angola, have also opened up.