Editor's Note:

Friendly exchanges between China and Africa have enjoyed a long history and have deepened in recent years, covering various fields such as politics, the economy, and culture. The Global Times is launching a China-Africa Rhapsody series, aiming to showcase the profound human connections and development visions between the two peoples by sharing the true stories of Chinese people in Africa and African people in China. From touching stories of China-Africa cooperation and exciting collisions of youthful ideas, to debunking fallacies concocted by some Western sources about the China-Africa collaboration, this series hopes to promote closer cooperation and deeper understanding between the peoples of China and Africa.

In this installment, we turn our attention to Chinese agricultural experts who have been actively collaborating with African countries to improve local rice cultivation techniques, significantly boosting agricultural productivity. This cross-continental partnership exemplifies a commitment to global food security and highlights the importance of international cooperation in fighting against hunger and achieving sustainable agricultural development.

Around 733 million people - meaning one in 11 people worldwide - had to go to bed hungry in 2023, with a significant number from Africa where one in five individuals face this plight, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' latest figures.

In the face of this persistent challenge, the cycle of hunger and poverty continues to deepen, exacerbating the issue. To combat chronic hunger in Africa, Chinese professor Xu Jianlong at the Crop Science Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has embarked on a mission to fight against hunger by empowering smallholder farmers and households to boost their agricultural production.

Since 2008, Xu, together with a group of Chinese researchers, has managed to use genetic molecular research to breed Green Super Rice (GSC) that can be grown in the resource-poor regions of Africa, with support from the Chinese government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

When it comes to solving the difficult problem of hunger and alleviating poverty, China is undoubtedly a good forerunner. The country announced in 2021 that extreme poverty had been eradicated and it has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty over the last four decades. Agricultural development was used as an effective way to lift people out of poverty. Therefore, China has valuable lessons to share.

According to Xu, they have been busy breeding different GSR varieties to adapt to different ecological environments. In Africa, for example, the GSR varieties need to be more resilient to drought and high temperatures.

"It's important to teach them 'how to breed rice' instead of just 'giving them rice,'" Xu told the Global Times.

One step further
Over the last decade, Xu and his colleagues have successfully developed 236 excellent rice varieties, with nearly 6,000 imported materials being tested and screened in different countries in Africa and Asia. Ninety-six GSR varieties have been approved or registered, with a promotion area of 6.12 million hectares, helping farmers increase their income by $1.4 billion, Xu introduced.

During his work in Africa, he noticed that farmers living in remote and scattered areas have difficulties accessing good quality seeds, which greatly influenced their rice yields.

"People often say that a single seed can change the world. We believe that it is more important to get these seeds into the hands of smallholder farmers, plant them in the soil, and only then can there be subsequent harvests and celebrations," he said.

It is for this reason that Xu is collaborating with the Gates Foundation to jointly decide on the next step forward after developing GSR. In September 2021, they launched a program to promote the construction of the rice seed industry system in West African countries through a dual-track approach, from upstream breeding and seed production to downstream seed promotion and marketing, forming a complete chain. They first piloted the scheme in West African countries and established rice demonstration areas in Nigeria and Mali.

To appeal to local farmers, they first rented large demonstration farmlands to plant the developed GSR and the most widely planted local varieties side by side. When the rice matured, they invited nearby small-scale farmers to witness the harvest of both types of rice. They weighed the results on the spot, showing that the hybrid rice varieties could increase yields by more than 50 percent.

"The farmers were amazed. Furthermore, we distributed seeds for free on-site, giving two pounds to each invited farmer, encouraging them to plant the seeds," Xu said.

For West African farmers, their primary concern is yields, so Xu's team brought high-yielding and stress-resistant rice varieties for local cultivation. But after actual inspections, they found that farmers also had their own preferences for rice taste, preferring long-grain aromatic rice. Therefore, they introduced hybrid rice varieties that are high-yielding, long-grain, and aromatic, which the farmers liked and more easily accepted.

However, the road has not been that smooth. In the GSR breeding project, they initially imported developed varieties from China to countries like Nigeria for testing, hoping to find seeds suitable for local cultivation in Africa. But African soil and climatic conditions are very different from China's, and out of 100 varieties they brought over for testing, only a few - one to two varieties - succeeded.

Besides, Xu noted that even the same rice variety, for example, may produce different results in experimental fields and farmers' fields due to differences in water and fertilizer conditions. Because smallholder farmers find it difficult to plant rice in the same way as in the experimental controls, optimally controlling all the water and fertilizer conditions and using the most suitable pesticides. Therefore, even if a variety can increase yields by up to 50 percent in experimental fields, it may only increase yields by 20 percent in farmers' hands, a difference that must be considered.

"It is important to start from reality. Like breeding work, projects must consider local temperature and light conditions and work in real environments," he said.

"We must always consider the actual situation in farmers' fields and their actual needs, which places more specific requirements on our breeding work," Xu told the Global Times.

Lesson to share

Over the last 40 years, China has made significant progress in agricultural development, which has not only ensured China's food security but also laid a strong foundation for the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture. This path of agricultural development that benefits smallholder farmers has great significance for Africa, where smallholder farmers are also the mainstay.

Xu told the Global Times that after finding the most appropriate seeds, it is more important to help locals master breeding and planting methods.

To do this, they worked closely with local technical experts to pass on breeding knowledge, hybrid rice seed production, and high-yield cultivation techniques, allowing them to achieve self-breeding and food self-sufficiency. They also went into the fields to observe how farmers planted rice and helped them find specific skills on how to water, fertilize, and spray pesticides during different rice growth seasons.

"Only by giving people the ability to sustain themselves can sustainable development be achieved," Xu said.

In addition to rice planting, China and Africa have established extensive cooperation in the agricultural sector under multiple mechanisms including the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In an interview with the Xinhua News Agency, Felix Dapare Dakora, former president of the African Academy of Sciences, noted, "Learning from China is the right path." He hailed China's great achievements in solving food shortages through technological innovation and China's efforts to help Africa strengthen food security.

Recently, experts from the China Agricultural University participated in an international agricultural expo in Tanzania. The red slogans in both Chinese and English reading "Harvesting Festival for Small Technology Big Harvest" at the scene.

Li Xiaoyun, a professor at the China Agricultural University, told The Beijing News that they arrived in Tanzania 10 years ago and found that the local corn yield was very low. Traditional Chinese corn planting techniques could help local farmers increase their production rapidly without incurring higher investment costs.

Initially, they promoted the technology in one local village and now the program has been expanded to 10 villages, helping to increase local farmers' corn yield two- to five-fold. They also assisted local families in trying corn and soybean intercropping, producing soybeans, and making soy milk and other soy products by themselves, to solve the problem of nutritional deficiencies in the local area, read the report.

Meanwhile, the training of African experts is ongoing. According to the China Agricultural University website, the "China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard" is a China-Africa agricultural education project launched in 2019, implemented by the China Agricultural University, which recruits agricultural students from Africa to study in China.

It uses China's agricultural experience to help Africa cultivate high-quality agricultural talents and promote the development of African agriculture. The project has experimental bases in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, and Malawi. Over the last six years, the project has recruited 91 agricultural talents from 12 countries in Africa. These students have also become builders and witnesses of the deepening cooperation between China and Africa. The feedback from farmers showed that they have benefited a lot from the training, which greatly increased their production yields, according to the university.

Xu's lab also provided advanced training regarding GSR breeding techniques to about 942 scientists and technicians from 15 countries and this training program continues to expand.

"The use of Chinese technology to ensure food security in developing countries is of great importance to BRI construction and the building of a global community of shared future," Xu said, eyeing the promotion of techniques to help African farmers in more countries in the future.

China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Friday announced "maximum" penalties on global auditing firm PwC over its failure to perform due diligence in its audit of Evergrande's annual reports and bond issuances, including a total fine of 441 million yuan ($62.16 million) and a six-month business suspension on PwC's auditing unit.
Chinese experts said the move reflects the country's firm determination to enhance regulatory supervision to ensure market fairness and stability, and such an individual case will not affect China's continuous efforts in opening up to foreign businesses that abide by Chinese laws and regulations. 

In a statement, the CSRC said that an investigation found that PwC failed to perform due diligence in its audit of Evergrande's annual reports and bond issuances in 2019 and 2020, violated multiple auditing standards, and failed in many audit procedures. 

Specifically, the CSRC said audit working papers were distorted, and 88 percent of real estate project observation records were inconsistent with the actual implementation. On-site visit procedures also did not fulfill their purpose, as most of the real estate projects that were considered to have met delivery conditions during the visits were actually not completed or delivered, and some were just "pieces of vacant land."

PwC's behaviors are not just a simple audit dereliction and failure. It has, to a certain extent, covered up and even condoned Evergrande's financial falsification and fraudulent issuance of corporate bonds. It seriously eroded the foundation of law and integrity, seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of investors, seriously undermined market confidence, and should be severely punished in accordance with the law, the CSRC said. 

The CSRC imposed a "maximum fine" of 297 million yuan and confiscated a total of 27.74 million yuan in PwC's financial gains from the related business. 

In a separate announcement, the MOF also said that an investigation found that PwC knew misstatements in Evergrande's financial reports but failed to identified them, issued inappropriate audit opinions and false audit reports between 2018 and 2020. The ministry imposed a fine of 116 million yuan and suspended PwC's operations in China for six months. 

The MOF and the CSRC vowed to enhance regulatory supervision and ramp up crackdown on illegal activities to ensure stable market operations. 

Strengthened regulatory supervision is conducive to maintaining fairness, ensuring market order and promoting high-quality development, Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Friday, adding that relevant efforts will also further improve the environment for businesses, including foreign companies. 

China's business environment for multinational companies is becoming increasingly optimized, which will help attract more foreign investment and promote sustainable economic development and provide a more standardized and secure environment for multinational companies to expand their businesses in China, Cao said.  

China has been continuously opening up its market for global businesses, and the Chinese market welcomes foreign businesses as long as they abide by Chinese laws and regulations, experts said.

The case against PwC will serve as an example that China regulates market entities in accordance to the law and aims to build a fair and just business environment for all types of businesses, Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Friday. 

Meanwhile, foreign businesses continue to flock to the Chinese market. In the first seven months of 2023, nearly 32,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, an increase of 11.4 percent year-on-year, according to official data.   

A farmer gathers harvested rice in Shajingwan village of Hengyang, Central China's Hunan Province, on September 12, 2024. To reduce the influence of heavy rainfall, the government of Hunan Province has been accelerating the rice harvest by deploying more harvesting machines and arranging grain purchases. Photo: VCG

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The clear and refreshing wind brings joy to all things, which is the best scenery of the year. From August 25 to 28, entrepreneurs and representatives of the multinational companys who participated in the international cooperation and communication meeting of Yancheng Zero Carbon Industrial Park, visited Yancheng Dafeng Deer Nature Reserve, Dongtai Tiaozi Ni Wetland, and Yining Energy Park, and embarked on a field visit and inspection tour, experienced the beauty of Yancheng's ecology and feeling the green transformation.

"This industrial park is really good, with complete infrastructure and advanced technology. You can feel elements such as 'green, low-carbon, and smart' everywhere in the park," exclaimed a foreign journalist who was visiting Yining Energy Science and Technology Innovation Industrial Park on August 28.

The park is an industrial agglomeration base and intelligent warehousing base for State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company and Jiangsu Yining Energy Industry Group Co., Ltd. A total of 1.659 MW photovoltaic panels have been installed in the park, which can achieve an annual power generation of about 1.8 million kWh. The park has built a demonstration application project of 'regional source grid load storage integration' AC and DC microgrid, consisting of more than 20 smart system projects. Using the energy carbon big data model, a micro carbon smart energy control platform has been constructed.

By integrating clean energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal, it has been able to regulate a new energy installed capacity of 1.65 megawatts, and has cumulatively generated over 1.4156 million kilowatt hours of electricity, reducing carbon emissions by 1967.31 tons.

The "Micro Carbon Smart Energy" concept not only builds the park's own microgrid system, but also provides a good reference for the further development of green energy industry in Yancheng.

In 2023, Yineng Group successfully achieved the first case expansion and replication in the government built Sheyang Zero Carbon Industrial Park, which has built and operated an "energy carbon" dual control management platform, clarifying the green power supply structure of the park, conducting full factor carbon emission accounting, and building a safe, controllable, efficient, and diversified energy storage "zero carbon" ecosystem. The industrial park is expected to be officially put into operation by the end of September this year.

In addition, entrusted by the government of Yancheng, an industrial park have been designated as the core area, and a low and zero carbon demonstration island have been expanded outward. Multiple business formats such as zero carbon park, office, industry, residential and living facilities have been planned and constructed.

On January 10, Yineng Group. and Guangzhou Saibao Certification Center Service Co., Ltd. signed strategic partnership agreement. Nowadays, Yineng Group can act as an authoritative third-party organization to assist enterprises in carbon emission measurement and grant carbon neutrality certificates.

“We will continue to play a key role as a third-party certification body for carbon neutrality, providing strong support for the sustainable development of social enterprises, promoting the green transformation of the entire society. "said Wang Guoping, the person in charge of Yineng Group.

Basking in the wind, the green energy surges. Driving along the coastline of Yancheng, clusters of wind turbines rotate with the wind, and the beautiful scenery resources are gradually becoming green energy for development.

In the first quarter of this year, the cumulative power generation of new energy in Yancheng was 8.99 billion kilowatt hours, a year-on-year increase of 21.2 percent, accounting for 29.2 percent of the province's new energy power generation and 75.1 percent of Yancheng's total social electricity consumption. It became the first city in East China to have new energy power generation accounting for three-quarters of the total social electricity consumption.

State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company continuously promotes the transformation and upgrading of the backbone network and the coordinated development of main distribution and micro systems, enhancing the resilience and new energy consumption level of the backbone network.

In March of this year, the "Distributed New Energy Resource Aggregation Platform" led by State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company was officially launched.It provides accurate load data and the accuracy of busbar load forecasting has been improved from 92 percent to 96 percent.

In order to ensure the efficient consumption of massive new energy electricity, Yancheng Power Supply Company is accelerating the construction, in order to meet the large-scale new energy full consumption demand in the region and simultaneously achieve efficient transmission of surplus electricity. It is expected that after completion, the annual new energy power generation in Yancheng area will increase by over 80 billion kilowatt hours.

However, the seasonal intermittency and volatility of new energy sources such as wind power and photovoltaics have brought new challenges to the power grid. On July 12, the largest new energy storage project in the province, the Yuanjing Sheyang 250000 kW/500000 kWh energy storage power station, was connected to the grid. So far, all 8 new energy storage projects on the grid side included in the power system planning in Yancheng area have been put into operation, with a total scale of 1.51 million kilowatts/3.02 million kilowatt hours, ranking first in the province.

The 500 kV Heqi substation connected to this project is the intersection of 700000 kW offshore wind power transmission. More than one-third of the green electricity can be stored inthe Yuanjing Sheyang Energy Storage Station. It is expected that the annual peak shaving and valley filling electricity can reach about 240 million kWh, which will effectively improve the power supply and new energy consumption capacity.

Yancheng is currently promoting a 400000 kW grid side energy storage projects that has been included in the plan.After putting into operation by 2025, the scale of the regional energy storage cluster will reach 1.91 million kW/4.12 million kWh, "said Cheng Shidong, staff of the Development Department of State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company.

On July 26, 2019, at the 46th UNESCO World Heritage Committee Meeting held in New Delhi, the Chinese Yellow (Bohai) Sea Migratory Bird Habitat declared by China successfully passed the review of the Heritage Committee and were successfully included in the The World Heritage List.

Wetland ecological restoration work should not only maintain the original appearance of wetlands, but also serve local economic development. State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company has been involved since 2017, carrying out a series of work and gradually exploring a model of harmonious coexistence between power grid operation and wetland protection.

The Chuanshuiwan Coastal Wetland Restoration Project, is the first ecological restoration project carried out in a coastal heritage site in China. Among them, the relocation of 147 livestock farmers covering an area of 18000 acres is the top priority of the entire wetland renovation. State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company actively contacted the local government and formulated a detailed plan for pole and line relocation based on the specific situation of the wetland, including the scope and methods of pole and line relocation. At the same time, it carried out publicity with livestock farmers on the progress of wetland restoration.

There are many similar cases in Yancheng, such as the restoration of the Yellow Sea wetland, the restoration of the Dazong Lake wetland, the restoration of the Jiulongkou wetland, and so on. With the continuous expansion of wetland areas, more and more birds choose to come and inhabit. Nowadays, Yancheng Wetland has 3308 species of living organisms and 442 recorded bird species, accounting for nearly one-third of the total in the country. Due to the increasing intersection between power facilities and birds, State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company continues to carry out the protection of migratory birds and biodiversity under the framework of State Grid's "Migratory Bird Lifeline" public welfare project.

At the same time, State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company, together with rescue stations, public security, forestry departments, and numerous social organizations, has established a joint rescue mechanism for the Oriental White Stork. Based on this mechanism, 11 Eastern White Storks have been successfully rescued and released from last year to this year, five of which are equipped with tracking rings with Beidou positioning function. It can be seen that the activity trajectory of the Oriental White Stork has traveled through Shandong, Tianjin, Liaoning and other places. The Oriental White Stork released into nature can smoothly adapt to wild life.

In addition, State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company has also cooperated with local wetland management departments to carry out technical research and development. By using power big data and bird observation records, and comprehensively considering the location, height, historical nesting situation of iron towers, as well as the construction of iron towers within 5 kilometers of the surrounding area, a prediction model for nesting points of large birds such as the Eastern White Stork has been constructed. The tower locations where they may nest have been selected, and protective measures such as installing protective barriers have been taken in advance. By utilizing this system, the utilization rate of the line protection device can be increased by 70%, and the cost can be reduced by over 5 million yuan.

At the beginning of autumn, the coldness in the north is gradually emerging. Autumn migratory birds have arrived at wetlands in Yancheng one after another. They rest and forage here, preparing adequately for winter. Amid the blue sky and clear water, birds dance and soar freely, painting a new ecological picture.

The EU remained China's second-largest trading partner in the first eight months of the year, with bilateral trade posting growth of 1.1 percent during the period, slightly up from a reading of 0.4 percent in the January-July period, data from Chinese customs showed on Tuesday.

The data reflected the continued improvement of trade, after January-July data reversed a downward trend, underscoring the resilience and complementarity of the two economies, despite some recent protectionist measures implemented by the EU such as the bloc's hefty provisional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).

Total bilateral trade reached 3.72 trillion yuan ($522.61 billion) in yuan-denominated terms between January and August, up 1.1 percent on a yearly basis, according to the General Administration of Customs. 

The data confirmed the improvement from the first half, during which bilateral trade declined by 0.7 percent year-on-year.

China's exports to the EU increased by 2.9 percent year-on-year to 2.44 trillion yuan while imports from the bloc decreased by 2.1 percent on a yearly basis to 1.28 trillion yuan, the GAC data showed. Trade with the EU accounted for 13 percent of China's total trade, unchanged from the January-July period.

The trade data came as the EU has increasingly resorted to protectionist measures in face of fierce external competition. The latest improving data showed that the economies of China and the EU are highly complementary, and that China's mega-market and the EU's single market can offer huge opportunities for each other's economic development, analysts noted.

Instead of resorting to protectionism, the EU should remain open and confident to create a fair competition environment to allow trade to flourish, they said. 

In August, trade reached 500.51 billion yuan,down from July's 503.3 billion yuan.

In the month, the bloc unveiled a draft decision to impose final countervailing duties of up to 36.3 percent on Chinese EVs.

Overall,China's foreign trade grew 6 percent during the first eight months. Auto exports value grew by 22.2 percent on a yearly basis to 540.84 billion yuan while imports of autos slid by 6.6 percent to 193.61 billion yuan. 

The latest defense operation against a potential asteroid impact reflects China's ability to quickly initiate relay tracking observations thanks to its deployment of widespread observation stations across the country and advanced network monitoring technologies, Chinese experts involved in the tracking task told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that international cooperation is crucial in dealing with such emergency situations. 

On early Thursday, a small asteroid approximately 1.2 meters in diameter entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of approximately 20 kilometers per second and exploded at an altitude of about 25 kilometers northeast of the Philippines. 

It was the first time that China's monitoring network has conducted relay tracking observations for an asteroid warning, also the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact, according to media reports. It marked significant progress in China's asteroid defense efforts, Science and Technology Daily reported on Saturday. 

The asteroid, named 2024 RW1, was first discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) at 1:43 pm Beijing time on Wednesday and at 8 pm, a near-Earth telescope of the Purple Mountain Observatory started tracking the asteroid's trajectory. Meanwhile, telescopes located at the Ngari Prefecture in Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region joined the tracking, providing ephemeris guidance for radar observations, Zhao Haibin, a researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times. 

China's ability to quickly initiate the relay observation benefited from the deployment of observation stations across various time zones, providing a relatively comprehensive relay tracking capability, Zhao said. Also, by leveraging the advantages of networked monitoring equipment, scientists were able to conduct position forecasting, tracking and data processing, he added.

The successful handling of impact this time was the result of joint global actions by observatories in the US, Chile and Australia together with China, Zhao said, "The recent series of success in early warning and avoidance against asteroid impact cannot be done without joint efforts by global participants." 

China joined the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) in 2018, an organization that aims to strengthen global cooperation and data sharing in the field of near-Earth object observation and response to potential impact threats.

Two giant pandas spotted engaging in courtship by rangers in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province in March have been identified as Tao Tao and Hua Yan, which is the first live footage of two released giant pandas engaging in courtship behavior captured in China, Sichuan Guancha reported on Tuesday.

In March, rangers from the conservation station of Giant Panda National Park in Shimian county in Ya’an, Sichuan, came across two giant pandas during their patrol and captured footage of them courting each other.

In order not to interfere with the pandas’ courtship, the rangers chose to leave first and came back to the site the next day to collect feces samples.

After analyzing the experimental data of giant panda fecal samples, the laboratory staff members of the station confirmed recently that the male giant panda in the video was Tao Tao, released to the wild in 2012, and the female giant panda Hua Yan, released in 2016.

This confirms that they have successfully adapted to the wild and are capable of mating, breeding, and courting, staff explained. It marks a significant new development and discovery for the panda release program. 

The mating season for wild giant pandas is typically from March to May, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Emerging industries such as electric vehicles (EVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) play a very big role in China-Africa cooperation, Allan Majuru, CEO of ZimTrade, the national trade development and promotion organization of Zimbabwe, told the Global Times on Friday on the sidelines of the eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs.

"China has worked on AI and green (transition) before and we believe that we can learn a couple of things from China on how they worked out," said Majuru. "China's modernization has moved fast both in terms of infrastructure and also in EVs and other sectors."

"We are here not only to do business but to learn. There has been a lot of exchange learning that has happened between China and us and that has enabled us to bring expertise back home. We believe we can learn a lot from China to make sure that when we go green in Zimbabwe, our roadmap is also carried by international best practices," Majuru noted.

Green development, including the launch of 30 clean energy projects in Africa, was among the 10 partnership actions that China unveiled on Thursday, aiming to jointly advance modernization with Africa in the next three years, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The 10 actions span over areas of mutual learning, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, green development and common security.

"There was a roadmap, a 10-point plan, that was put in place during the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to support our development. It's quite significant for us," said Majuru, adding that the summit is going to be mutually beneficial.

In terms of the potential of economic and trade cooperation, Majuru said that there are a lot of areas in focus.

For Zimbabwe, the cooperation focus is agriculture. China is the biggest importer of its agricultural products. "China is not only buying from us, but also investing so that we can source for ourselves. And the good thing is, we are now focusing on value-added exports," said Majuru.

He stressed that trade between China and Zimbabwe has been increasing for five years and it's going to grow more. "We will participate in events like the CAETE (China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo) and CIIE (China International Import Expo), which will help us grow our footprint in China."

In 2023, trade between China and Zimbabwe totaled $3.12 billion, up 29.9 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China.

"I think for us (Zimbabwe), most of our trade coming from China is based on machinery equipment. If we can get more of that into our country, we can modernize ourselves. Modernization is quite key for us. We are grateful for that plan (put in place at the 2024 FOCAC) and also the resources that have been put in place to make sure that we support the same plan," said Majuru.

Majuru stressed that Zimbabwe is in the process of modernizing. He believes that there is a lot of technology that they can import from China and use back home. And also there are a lot of products that they can get from home to bring back to China.

Majuru also pointed out that it is important to make sure that trade among African countries is made easy. "The support that we're going to get from China in terms of infrastructure development and modernization is going to help us facilitate trade."

Trade can be seamless and efficient with the necessary infrastructure put in place, which can make transport, goods and services very efficient, Majuru said, noting that if more emphasis is put on infrastructure going forward, it will help Africa when implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area.

China and Africa will cultivate "small yet smart" livelihood programs that feature technical training, effectiveness and poverty alleviation in the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China's top economic planner said on Thursday.

China and Africa will jointly enhance the momentum of economic development, build an international cooperation platform with broad participation, promote economic and social development in Africa, and provide a material foundation for improving people's livelihoods, Xu Jianping, an official of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a press conference in Beijing on Thursday. The NDRC published a blue paper on the same day summarizing the progress of China-Africa cooperation. 

These projects will further improve Africa's capacity for independent and sustainable development, and help the African people accelerate the process of poverty alleviation and income enhancement, according to Xu.

China and Africa are set to discuss plans for further pragmatic cooperation during the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6.

Officials at the press conference noted that the promotion of "small yet smart" livelihood programs are producing synergies with signature projects built by Chinese companies on the continent, and the implementation of such programs is fostering enhanced institutional connectivity.

Wan Zhe, an economist and professor at the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times on Thursday that "small yet smart" programs will boost people-to-people exchanges between China and African countries.

These programs are focused on improving the educational level of the local people, boosting local development in the fields of science and technology and innovation, improving the local work force's vocational skills and transferring technologies, Wan said. These programs help fill development and technology gaps faced by many African countries. 

China has long firmly supported Africa countries' pursuit of an independent development path, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a routine press conference on Thursday. 

Focusing on Africa's most pressing needs to advance modernization, China launched three initiatives to promote industrialization, agricultural modernization and talent training in African countries under the framework of the FOCAC to foster prosperity in Africa, Lin noted.

Many signature projects and "small yet smart" people-centered programs have been launched.

In Uganda, local companies investing in an industrial park set up a Luban Workshop on-site training ground, which has played an important role in cultivating local specialists in fitter jobs, electrical automation, computerized numerical control machine work and other fields, according to Xu.

In Angola, CRCC (International) completed a water supply project in 2022 that provides around-the-clock tap water for 92 percent of urban areas in Cabinda province.

Li Chongyang, a manager at CRCC (International), told the Global Times on Thursday that the project effectively filled a livelihood gap and ended the practice of local people having to fetch water with various types of containers.