Trade figures tell a good-news story

Chinese presence leaves specter of colonial yoke in the shadows

Since time immemorial African countries have been used to their main trading partners being their colonial masters. In recent years calls for developing countries to trade more among themselves have become louder and more insistent.

The huge amount of trade between China and Africa is strong evidence that these calls have been heeded.

In 2009 China became the single largest trading partner and key investor for Africa.

China extended 30 African states zero tariff treatment to 60 percent of their exports to China. The same year China exported goods worth $85.3 billion to Africa, and Africa exported goods worth $113.2 billion to China.

Figures from the United Nations Development Agency South-South Team in Beijing suggest an emerging trend in China-Africa economic relations in which private investment in both directions continues to grow.

The UNDP says the China-Africa relationship is becoming broader, less influenced by state-owned enterprises, and that African private businesses are "benefiting from the growing presence of China across the continent".

"While SOEs account for the majority of Chinese investment in Africa, increasing numbers of private Chinese companies are launching businesses in Africa," the UNDP says.

The figures show that in 2012 African enterprises' direct investment in China totaled $14.2 billion, 44 percent higher than the previous three years.

China and African countries continue to strengthen their trade ties, and at the same time are looking for development that fits within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

China is now Africa's largest trading partner, and Africa is a vital source of imports for China, its second-largest engineering contracting market and fourth-largest investment destination. Growing trade has improved the lives of Africans and diversified the continent's economy, and has helped China with its social and economic development.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Africa in March 2013 and announced new measures to support African development it gave bilateral relations a fillip.

China now has trade connections with 53 African countries, 45 of which have signed trading agreements; 31 have signed investment protection agreements; and 10 have signed double-taxation agreements.

Since trade between China and Africa reached $10 billion in 2000 it has grown by an average of 33.5 percent a year, and reached $106.8 billion in 2008, two years ahead of a target set by former premier Wen Jiabao.

China Customs said that trade between the two sides reached $210.2 billion by the end of 2013.

Before the visit of Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Ghana last year, China's then ambassador to Ghana, Gong Jianzhong, forecast that the figure would exceed $300 billion this year.

In 2010, trade between China and Ghana reached $2.05 billion, and by 2012 the figure had risen to $5.4 billion. It reached $4.99 billion by the end of November last year, according to China's General Administration of Customs.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/23/2015 page8)