Hubei and Africa reached 13 agreements on Sept. 27, at the 2021 China Hubei-Africa Investment and Trade Cooperation Seminar, in Changsha, Hunan’s capital city.
With a total contract value of 2.67 billion U.S. dollars, these agreements are mainly relating to 14 key projects such as power engineering, industrial construction, and agricultural development.
The ambassadors of Nigeria, Tanzania and other African countries to China sent out their invitations at the seminar, welcoming Hubei enterprises to invest and start business in Africa.
As of September this year, Hubei has set up 47 enterprises in more than 20 African countries including Mali, Tanzania and Egypt, specializing in medicine, building materials, food, etc.
Hubei dispatched China's first medical team to aid Algeria in 1963, which kicked off the exchanges and cooperation between Hubei and African countries. Today, the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides is continuing to deepen, and has expanded from just providing aid to contracting projects, investing, and carrying out agricultural cooperation.
During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Hubei enterprises undertook 102 major projects worth over 10 million U.S. dollars each in Africa, with a total contract value of 17.96 billion U.S. dollars. In the first seven months of this year, the value of new contracts signed by Hubei enterprises in Africa saw a year-on-year increase of 197.8 percent, accounting for more than 50 percent of the province’s new overseas contracts. (en.hubei.gov.cn by Ruan Xinqi)