Africa-Press – Gambia. Despite global supply chain challenges, trade between China and Africa rose to record levels in 2021. The increase partially reflects a shift in Chinese policy away from state-backed investments and towards trade and cooperation.
Data released recently by the Chinese Customs Agency show that Chinese trade with Africa increased by 35% last year, to a record high of $254bn.
This growth was largely driven by an increase in Chinese exports to the continent.
Going forward, volumes look set to continue growing, with trade constituting a key element in a joint plan released by Africa and China at the end of last year, during the meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
FOCAC and trade
Launched in 2000, FOCAC has given rise to an ever-closer relationship between the Chinese state and the African continent, in both diplomatic and economic terms.
However, the coronavirus pandemic prompted a change in direction.
Held in Senegal in November, the 2021 FOCAC conference saw China announce a pivot away from the state’s role as a direct financer of African projects.
This was reflected in President Xi Jinping’s pledge of $40bn to the continent – a 33% drop on the $60bn pledged at the preceding conference in 2018, and the first time that the sum committed by China every three years has decreased.
Notably, there was no concrete budget assigned to concessional lending, which has traditionally been the principal vehicle by which the Chinese state has invested in infrastructure projects.
It would seem that China envisages that trade and private investment will pick up the slack created by this downturn in state-backed funding.
The FOCAC conference also saw the launch of the 2035 Vision for China-Africa Cooperation, the first mid- to long-term cooperation plan jointly developed by the two parties.
Echoing the approach of China’s own Vision 2035, this document lays out eight areas of cooperation, among them development, trade and industry.
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