Officials and experts agreed to strengthen ties and deepen cooperation with China in the future, while refuting "debt trap" allegations at a forum held on Tuesday.

Themed with rejuvenation and cooperation, the 12th China-Africa Think Tanks Forum began in Jinhua City, east China's Zhejiang Province and will end on Wednesday, gathering nearly 200 scholars and business representatives from 45 countries. 

The city of Jinhua has long been at the center of cooperation between China and the continent of Africa. It's home to companies that have built warehouses, industrial parks and e-commerce infrastructures in many African countries.

For 12 consecutive years, the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum has helped policymakers in Africa to formulate and enact effective policies, by providing the governments in Africa with evidence-based recommendations. As for China, it has always supported African people in solving African issues in African ways. 

"The business transactions are based on sound commercial considerations, it is not leading South Africa, nor Africa into the debt trap, as what was often accused. From a South African prospective, the assessments of the types of the Chinese investments, and the conditions attached to those investments are as same as those of the West," said Daryl Swanepoel, CEO of Inclusive Society Institute, South Africa. 

Last year, China-Africa trade hit a record high of more than $280 billion. According to data from Chinese Customs, exports to Africa increased more than 11-percent year on year, while imports from the continent rose at a similar rate in the same period.

"Like what China did many years ago by sending students outside to study and come back, then built the new China. My core today is for us to learn from that model, the Chinese model, for young African scholars to come to China, learn this and go back, and build the new Africa," Pierre Gomez, head of Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology of Republic of The Gambia, told CGTN 

China and African countries have altogether built and commissioned over 10,000 kilometers of railway, nearly 100,000 kilometers of highway, and key infrastructure across the continent ranging from airports to docks, bridges and power plants.

"The very long highway - 1,200 kilometers - linking east Algeria to the west Algeria, it is very useful, and it makes communications and travel among the Algerians very easy," said Professor Zine M. Barka from the University of Tlemcen, Algeria.

Founded in 2011, the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum has become a major platform for academic and other institutions to promote multilateral cooperation, as well as producing ideas for developing countries around the globe.