China-Africa Deep Economic and Trade Cooperation Pilot Zone to Highlight “Depth” and “Priority”
The construction of the China-Africa Deep Economic and Trade Cooperation Pilot Zone is set to emphasize “depth” and “priority” as it strives to promote the in-depth development of China-Africa cooperation and improve quality and efficiency. This announcement was made at a special press conference held on January 31 by the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce.
The “Overall Plan for the Construction of the China-Africa Deep Economic and Trade Cooperation Pilot Zone” was recently approved by the State Council and officially issued. According to the plan, the pilot zone will focus on building an innovative zone for economic and trade cooperation with Africa, a leading zone for deep economic and trade cooperation with Africa, a hosting zone for industrial chain cooperation with Africa, and a zone for in-depth economic and trade cooperation with Africa.
The pilot zone aims to become an open cooperation platform with Africa with international influence by 2027, and by 2035, it will be established as an economic and trade cooperation platform with Africa that has a significant radiating and driving role, pooling resources from all parties and being internationally competitive.
In addition, the pilot zone will rely on the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, align with international high-standard economic and trade rules, strengthen policy integration and innovation, deepen production capacity cooperation, promote innovation in financial logistics services, and intensify people-to-people and cultural exchanges between think tanks to improve the level of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.
To deepen cooperation in key areas, the pilot zone will focus on trade, investment, finance, personnel exchanges, and other fields. It will also promote the liberalization and facilitation of the flow of resource factors, accelerate cooperation between China and Africa in the fields of digital economy, green and low carbon, transportation, and logistics.
Furthermore, the pilot zone aims to take the lead in expanding opening up to the outside world and facilitating cooperation with Africa. It will optimize market access, strengthen market distribution functions, cultivate new cross-border e-commerce formats, and carry out product processing cooperation.
In coordinating resources and promoting local joint cooperation with Africa, the pilot zone will rely on existing resource aggregation to connect with the central region and the Yangtze River Economic Belt to promote the sharing of local cooperation resources with Africa and the joint construction of platforms. This is aimed at ensuring that industries prosper together.
Overall, the construction of the China-Africa Deep Economic and Trade Cooperation Pilot Zone is expected to play a pivotal role in enhancing economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa, further deepening the ties between the two regions.