Eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs to be held in Beijing

The eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs will be held in Beijing on September 6, according to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).

Wang Linjie, spokeswoman of the council, on Friday briefed the media on the conference, an important supporting activity of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which will be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6.

Co-organized by the CCPIT and China's Ministry of Commerce, the conference is the highest-level economic and trade event between the Chinese and African business communities under the FOCAC framework.

"The business community has always been an important connecting link in the friendly cooperation between China and Africa. China has been Africa's largest trading partner for the past 15 consecutive years, and Africa is now China's second-largest overseas contracting market," said Wang.

Noting that African countries have attached great importance to the conference, Wang said that so far, a total of 408 enterprises, business associations and other institutions from 48 African countries have signed up for the conference.

"The participating companies include both traditional industries such as energy, mining, infrastructure, and financial trade, as well as emerging industries like electronics, telecommunications, satellites, and biomedicine. There are well-known leading enterprises in the field of China-Africa cooperation, and also a significant number of small and medium-sized enterprises," said the spokeswoman.

Since its inception in 2003, the conference has been held every three years, alternating between China and Africa, with a total of seven sessions conducted to date.

Eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs to be held in Beijing

The onshore Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened to below 7.10 against the U.S. dollar in August.

In August, the weighted average rate on new corporate loans registered around 3.6 percent, a decline of over 0.2 percentage points from an already relatively low benchmark in 2023.

This indicates that China has continued to lower the overall financing costs and is encouraging financial institutions to pass on profits to the real economy.

The RMB exchange rate has seen an appreciation. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, has retreated from its peak since August, decreasing from above 104 to below 101, marking a new low in over a year with a decline of about 3 percent.

The onshore RMB exchange rate against the U.S. dollar has strengthened from a high point of 7.27 yuan in mid-July to below 7.10 yuan, a cumulative appreciation of 2 percent.

Cross-border funds continued to flow into the Chinese domestic market, maintaining a net increase trend. In August, overseas investors increased their net holdings of domestic bonds by approximately 17 billion U.S. dollars, marking the 12th consecutive month of net inflows.

Onshore Chinese yuan strengthens against USD in Aug