Editor's note: Bereket Sisay, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, writes on international affairs with a special focus on Africa. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, themed "Common Development for a Shared Future," is being held from June 29 to July 2, 2023, in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province. Under the guidance of the eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Ministerial Meeting and its "Nine Programs," the Expo is expected to host a variety of programs and events focusing on key areas of strategic cooperation between the two sides to promote mutual economic growth and prosperity.

The Expo, which brings together representatives of financial institutions, business associations and academia from 50 African countries, as well as participants from various international organizations, is believed to provide another opportunity to strengthen the already flourishing China-Africa economic cooperation, which has shown a consistent linear growth in the recent past.

China-Africa cooperation has been growing steadily for more than two decades and has achieved palpable results in various areas of strategic partnership. In particular, economic cooperation has made outstanding achievements as both sides attach great importance to massive infrastructure development for sustainable growth thereby to contribute for shared growth. More specifically, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the FOCAC have played a leading role in both shaping and charting a pragmatic roadmap for mutual cooperation.

In addition, China's own steady and broad economic rise also brings more development opportunities to the economic recovery of African countries. Africa, which has long faced huge infrastructure gaps that have hampered its growth, has benefited greatly from its economic partnership with China under these two frameworks. Accordingly, this cooperation has helped many African countries expand the provision of social and economic services, promote industrialization and to achieve comprehensive economic growth.

In numerical terms, official data from the Chinese government show that China has built or upgraded more than 10,000 kilometers of African railways, 100,000 km of roads, nearly 1,000 bridges, nearly 100 ports and more than 80 large power plants through infrastructure cooperation. China has also built many social service facilities while creating an average of 18,000 jobs annually for Africans.

China is now consistent with its commitment to expand and channel as many investment projects as possible to Africa to spur common development. In terms of trade and investment cooperation, China's investment stock in Africa has reached 47.35 billion over the last two decades while total bilateral trade has exceeded $2 trillion in the past decade, and China has remained Africa's largest trading partner.

Although the trade relationship is growing at an alarming rate, it still favors China. In an effort to redress the imbalance, China has pledged to allow African countries to export some goods duty-free, with the goal of increasing African imports to China to $300 billion by 2025.

Therefore, the two sides must be ready to seize the opportunity to further expand this high-quality mutual cooperation at this third edition of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which is being held at a time of global supply-side economic shock following the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

The Expo also serves as a new opportunity to explore new areas of cooperation, as well as to highlight the untapped areas of partnership for better engagement in the future. The Expo can also be an important opportunity to strengthen the trade and investment partnership, with the overall aim of further enhancing economic cooperation.

The previous two consecutive Expos have reportedly borne fruit in pushing the economic partnership to a new high, including the signing of 216 projects with a total investment of $43.02 billion. Given this, the third Expo is expected to play an important role in further replicating such achievements and helping to channel the huge investments into Africa.

The Expo will also provide an opportunity to explore the potential of economic cooperation between the two sides under the framework of South-South cooperation. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Chinese economy, which is expected to grow by 5.2 percent this year, will contribute one-third of global growth. Similarly, African countries have great growth potential with unexploited natural and human resources that will enable the continent to enter a continuous growth orbit. This means that both sides have enormous development capabilities and must work more complementarily to facilitate each other's growth and pave the way for shared growth.

Therefore, China and Africa need to use the Expo as a margin of opportunity to tap the potential of their strategic cooperation to accelerate the win-win benefits that have a huge impact on the positive trajectory of global economic growth.

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