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Orange Wang

China is keen to deepen supply chain ties and industrial integration with Africa in pursuit of shared benefits and development, Premier Li Qiang told nearly 1,000 business leaders on Friday.
Li also pledged support for small and medium-sized companies in Africa to help the continent’s industries reach “self-sustaining and resilient” growth.
“China and Africa enjoy great industrial complementarity,” he said in an address to entrepreneurs at a China-Africa cooperation conference in the Chinese capital.
“When we coordinate and link up our industrial chains, we will be able to turn our respective resource endowments into development momentum.”


Li’s speech to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) chimed with initiatives announced by President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
Those proposals include a partnership plan to “foster industry cooperation growth clusters with Africa” and to work with the continent to “embrace together the latest round of technological revolution”.
Beijing’s pitch to the continent comes as competition heats up between China and the United States on global industrial and supply chains.
In a 2025-2027 action plan released on Thursday, Chinese and African decision makers said they would “keep the global industrial and supply chains stable and smooth, oppose all forms of unilateralism, protectionism and maximum pressure, and oppose erecting walls and barriers, decoupling and supply disruption”.
With huge demand for Africa’s raw materials, the world’s second-biggest economy has become a major buyer of and investor in the continent’s vast deposits of critical minerals.
About 72 per cent of Africa’s cobalt exports go to China, along with 28 per cent of its graphite and 58 per cent of its manganese exports, according to a report this year by Zhou Yuyuan, a senior fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.
All the three elements are key components in the production of batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
Shipments to Africa from China mainly include electromechanical products, daily necessities and textiles, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
In US dollar terms, China’s exports to Africa in the first seven months of the year fell 3 per cent from a year earlier but China’s imports from Africa grew 12.5 per cent, Chinese customs data showed.


Li told the conference on Friday that Chinese companies had invested nearly US$130 billion and set up more than 5,000 firms in Africa.
“The structure of cooperation has consistently improved. China is now diversifying its imports from Africa,” he said.
He reaffirmed that Beijing would speed up the negotiation and signing of framework agreements on economic partnership with African countries and would grant wide access to the Chinese market for African agricultural exports and “high-quality” goods.
Li called on the business communities of both sides to be more confident in expanding in Chinese and African markets, citing an “upwards trajectory” of the two economies in the long run and an “irresistible trend of economic globalisation”.
He also encouraged Chinese enterprises to put more resources into Africa’s infrastructure, electricity, telecommunications, medical services and education sectors.
“Chinese and African companies are not only business partners, but more importantly, you share a bond of brotherhood,” he said.
Li added that Chinese companies in Africa should continue to localise their operations, create more local jobs, train more local talent and further contribute to local people’s well-being.


Why China is succeeding in Africa where the US is failing

China’s investment in Africa is getting a shake-up as the next belt and road phase beckons

How the UAE is competing with China for Africa’s resources

What China’s Belt and Road Initiative has in store for coming decade as priorities evolve

China-Africa relations

China looks to Africa for stronger supply chains and industrial tie-ups

The majority of Africa’s cobalt exports go to China. Photo: Reuters

China offers more military aid and training to Africa as it seeks to boost security ties

Troops prepare to take part inlast month’s joint exercise involving China, Tanzania and Mozambique. Photo: Xinhua

Zimbabwean troops pose in font of equipment supplied by China. Photo: Zimbabwe’s Office of the President and Cabinet

China pledges deeper DRC ties as African leaders gather in Beijing for FOCAC summit

President Xi Jinping with counterpart Félix Tshisekedi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the source of more than 60 per cent of China’s cobalt, in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrives in Beijing early on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE 

China, African leaders agree on major financing, trade deals at FOCAC summit in Beijing

This year’s FOCAC summit in Beijing is the largest African leaders’ gathering in the Chinese capital in years. Photo: Xinhua

China’s President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan along with leaders from African nations pose for a group photo ahead of the dinner reception. Photo: Reuters 

Security and finance headline China’s pledges to Africa at FOCAC Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping lays out China’s commitments to Africa at the start of the FOCAC Summit in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

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China

Diplomacy

Chinese Premier Li Qiang tells FOCAC conference that the goal is ‘self-sustaining and resilient’ growth


Chinese Premier Li Qiang tells FOCAC conference that the goal is ‘self-sustaining and resilient’ growth.
