Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Interview: Chinese businessmen will play an increasingly important role in China-Africa cooperation – Interview with Wang Huiyao, Director of the Globalization Think Tank

Beijing, 6 Sep (Xinhua) -- Chinese businessmen will play an increasingly important role in China-Africa cooperation -- Interview with Wang Huiyao, director of the Globalization Think Tank, and Liu Lina, Xinhua News Agency Africa is a new continent for future development and an important new growth point for the internationalization of Chinese enterprises. Wang Huiyao, director of the Globalization Think Tank (CCG) and vice president of the China Society for International Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an exclusive interview with a Xinhua reporter a few days ago. Wang Huiyao said: Chinese businessmen are an important economic force in the world, have the foundation of Chinese culture, have a world vision, and are international talents who integrate Chinese and Western ideas. Chinese businessmen have integrated into and profoundly affected the world economy, and African Chinese businessmen in particular have made significant contributions to the development of China-Africa relations. On September 4, on the occasion of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the Globalization Think Tank held a symposium on "Chinese Businessmen in Africa". According to the new book "World Chinese Business Development Report 2018" released at the seminar, China-Africa cooperation has achieved remarkable results over the years, bringing millions of jobs and employment opportunities to Africa, and playing a key role in the development of China-Africa relations, which is inseparable from the active entry of Chinese enterprises into Africa and the operation and construction of the majority of Chinese businessmen in Africa. As the co-editor of the new book, Wang Huiyao told reporters that the African continent has great potential for development, China-Africa cooperation is highly complementary, and China's development experience and technology gained over the past many years are very applicable to Africa. According to the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Development Report 2018, the scale of Chinese enterprises' investment in Africa has been expanding in recent years. At the end of 2016, there were 3,254 overseas enterprises established by Chinese enterprises in Africa, accounting for 8.5% of all overseas enterprises established. 8%, mainly distributed in Zambia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Angola and Uganda. The report also identifies some new trends in Chinese businessmen moving toward Africa. For example, Fujian businessmen went to Africa to develop earlier and grew rapidly, but in recent years, Wenzhou businessmen have "secondary migration" to Africa, and "Wen merchants" have frequently appeared in African countries. On the one hand, they have created a supply market for urgently needed domestic resources such as timber, minerals and oil, and on the other hand, they have also opened up a market for consumer goods in Africa with great potential. According to China's Ministry of Commerce, by the end of 2017, The stock of China's investment in Africa exceeded US$100 billion, covering almost every country in Africa. China's direct investment flows to Africa were US$3.1 billion in 2017, nearly 40 times higher than in 2003. Wang Huiyao said that in addition to state-owned enterprises, private enterprises' investment in Africa has also grown rapidly in recent years, and has gradually become an important force in investment in Africa, boosting the "Made in Africa" model. For example, he said, Huajian Group established Huajian International Shoe City in Africa in 2011 and has now become a park, employing 7,000 people in Africa, and is the largest shoe factory in Ethiopia, accounting for more than half of the country's export footwear industry. In 2015, the construction of the Ethiopia-China Huajian International Light Industry City began, with a total investment of 2 billion US dollars, which will be completed in 2020, which will become a new focus of the development of Ethiopian light industry, providing more than 30,000 jobs, and will also drive Chinese light industry enterprises to go out and develop in African clusters. "The internationalization of Chinese enterprises, can not put the eggs in a basket, need to expand and Europe, South America, BRICS countries, especially to expand cooperation with Africa," Wang Huiyao said, in addition to the African economy in terms of resources, industrial development stage and other aspects of complementarity with China, Africa's demographic structure is very young, young people account for 60% of the total population, and China has now begun to enter the aging society, the average working population of about 40 years old, which has formed a huge space for China-Africa cooperation. Wang Yaohui said: Overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese abroad are a huge treasure trove of talents and an important resource. He said that in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, Chinese businessmen have played a vital role in the process of introducing foreign investment in China. In the future, we still have to rely on Chinese businessmen to go global, and maybe we can better promote the development of globalization. The theme of this year's Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is "Win-win Cooperation, Working Together to Build a Closer China-Africa Community of Shared Future". Wang Huiyao said that there are currently 2 million Chinese in Africa, who have become an important force in promoting the economies of African countries, and believe that Chinese businessmen will make greater contributions to the mutually beneficial and pragmatic cooperation between China and Africa. (End)