China-Africa economic ties seeing most transformative partnership in 21st century: economist

China-Africa economic ties have become the most transformative partnership in the 21st century, said a bank economist on Monday.

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing from Sept. 4-6.

During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Jeremy Stevens, an economist for Standard Bank Asia Advisory, emphasized the significant role of the upcoming FOCAC summit, and expressed keen interest in ways the summit will shape the relationship over the next three years.

"More profoundly, I think China's economy is going through its own transformation. And so how does Africa align itself to China's future economic transformation? And what we care most about as Standard Bank is how it facilitates commercial activity between China and Africa. And so the thousands of businessmen that are coming to Beijing to attend FOCAC really does speak volumes to the importance of the event, but more significantly to the relationship. And so we watch very, very closely how FOCAC will frame the next three years of this relationship," he said.

Stevens stressed that African countries need to explore new business development models in current era, and China and Africa should collaborate to derive greater benefits from their economic ties.

"And I think that business as usual is no longer going to serve African countries. They really need to get more prepared and better organized in terms of being specific around what they want from this relationship and what metrics they can use to measure success. So, whether that's for our industrialization, modernization, job creation, skill development. We need to be quite forthright about; these are the things that we are prioritizing and as a result these are the commitments we're willing to make to the Chinese, so that we can create pro-business environments, where we can attract greater investment and private sector investment into our countries because Africa is obviously open to Chinese investors and traders," he said.

China and African countries have developed closer economic and trade ties with ever-increasing trade volume, diversified commodities and services on both sides, latest data showed.

Trade between China and Africa rose 5.5 percent year on year to 1.19 trillion yuan (about 166.6 billion U.S. dollars) between January-July, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed.

China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, customs data showed.

China-Africa economic ties seeing most transformative partnership in 21st century: economist

At the final day of the 47th WorldSkills Competition in the French city of Lyon, the race for medals heated up, with participants from roughly 70 nations showing their mettle.

Formerly known as the International Vocational Training Organization, WorldSkills is an international charity, which organizes national championships for vocational skills. Every two years, the organization hosts a competition, attracting competitors from around the world.

This year's competition ran from Wednesday to Saturday, with the closing ceremony on Sunday. The event brought together approximately 1,400 participants from nearly 70 countries and regions to compete in 59 skill categories spanning vocations ranging from artwork to welding.

China sent 68 participants to participated in 59 different disciplines.

Teams say it is a collaborative environment, but winning gold can help make their professional career's sparkle.

"I think it's for their career, for the whole of their life. And then they can join this field and they can have a very good start of their journey, their life," said Zou Ningxin, a jewelry expert of Team China.

Medals may be up for the grabs but the goal of the biannual Workskills Expo is also for crowds here to draw inspiration.

This event is designed to give people a little taste of different parts of the working world and what ingredients are needed to be successful in a chosen career.

The expo also gives delegations the opportunity to learn from one another.

"They're able to come here and see how they match up against other countries. It's a benchmarking system as well as an individual assessment of the competitors who are representing their nation," said Shawna Bourke, director of Marketing and Communications of the WorldSkills International.

This biannual event is seen as an opportunity to try and address shared problems like water pollution.

"Urban water sewage treatment and industrial water reuse are the fundamental ways to solve this problem. So water technology is very important today," said Wang Zhan, water technology expert of Team China.

Several days of tough competition culminates in a medal ceremony. And the hope is that these competitors will inspire a new generation of skilled workers to come out of the woodwork.

Shanghai is scheduled to play host to the competition's 48th edition in September 2026.

Race for medals heats up on last day of 47th WorldSkills Competition