STORY: China, Africa in fast lane of high-quality cooperation
DATELINE: June 30, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:44
LOCATION: Changsha, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SIYABONGA C. CWELE, South African ambassador to China
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BENJAMIN MUEMA KLAFUMA, Livestreamer from Kenya
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (French): JEAN-LUCIEN BUSSA TONGBA, DRC's external trade minister

STORYLINE:

The third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo kicked off on Thursday in Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province.

The expo aims to welcome more "Made in Africa" products into China and boost business links between the two sides.

Themed "Common Development for a Shared Future," the four-day event will be attended by representatives from 53 African countries and multiple international organizations.
   
The number of exhibitors has reached 1,500, up 70 percent from the previous expo.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SIYABONGA C. CWELE, South African ambassador to China
"The e-commerce penetration, for instance, in China is very high. In South Africa, that's about 30 percent of commerce businesses. What is good with e-commerce business and the livestreaming we're doing now is that you can sell your products very fast. Yes, you pay the livestreamers a fair amount, everyone gets an amount, but your profits and turn-around is very quick.
It gives access to even the small producers because they can put these products on the online platform, as long as they have high quality, then people will buy them."

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BENJAMIN MUEMA KLAFUMA, Livestreamer from Kenya
"Currently we've been doing the livestream for about one year and eight months. When we started the livestream, it was during the COVID period when a lot of people weren't able to visit markets and preferred to stay indoors.
Right now we mainly do our livestreams on Taobao account. And also our sales have improved greatly. Once we started the live broadcast, we usually had about 24 sales during one live broadcast. But right now in everyday sales, we are always reaching 1,000 plus."

SOUNDBITE 3 (French): JEAN-LUCIEN BUSSA TONGBA, DRC's external trade minister
"For us, we can present China the investment opportunities in the DRC, the improving the business climate of the DR Congo (DRC), so that there would be more Chinese investments in the DRC in the sectors as diversified as possible, such as the agriculture, mineral sectors that China are already aware of.
We also want to take this opportunity to continue to strengthen our economic and commercial cooperation with China."

China is Africa's largest trading partner and its fourth-biggest source of investment.

Official data shows that bilateral trade between China and Africa totaled 282 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Changsha, China.
(XHTV)