Cooperation with China propels industrialization, agricultural modernization in Africa: officials

China-Africa cooperation has yielded fruitful results and boosted progress in industrialization and agricultural modernization in Africa, said officials from African countries on Thursday.

On Thursday afternoon, a high-level meeting for industrialization and agricultural modernization was held in Beijing as part of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The summit which opened the previous day is the largest diplomatic event hosted by China in recent years, with the highest attendance of foreign leaders.

Leaders from both China and African countries co-hosted the meeting, attended by members of various African delegations.

"We will continue to look at suitable Chinese partners in industry. The range is wide, (including) pharmaceutical, mining, agriculture, agro-industry. We will continue seeking those partners. And we already have well-established places where these companies will link up with Cameroon as to form sustainable partnerships," said Fuh Calistus Gentry, Interim Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development of Cameroon.

The 2024 FOCAC summit focuses on "modernization," providing an opportunity to "improve quality and efficiency" in China-Africa cooperation.

In Africa, China has established 17 Luban Workshops, a vocational training program named for a legendary Chinese architect. Among the topics of discussion at the summit was how these workshops have helped inject new growth of local manufacturing and mining industries.

"We need to boost the images of medium or large scale exploitation. This is very important to achieve SDG One and Two, that means zero hunger and alleviating poverty in our country," said Mbairobe Gabriel, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cameroon

"Lualaba is the one, is the capital of cobalt in the world. We have copper, we are second in the world. We have also lithium that we found. Now we have got nickel, we have got manganese. What we need now is only electricity," said Masuka Saini Fifi, Governor of Lualaba Province of Democratic Republic of the Congo. By the end of last year, China had established 24 agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa, promoting over 300 advanced agricultural technologies that benefit more than one million smallholder farmers. The development of agricultural and trade cooperation between China and Africa has been robust, with China placing a high value on importing African specialty products, which have experienced a growth rate of over 10 percent for several consecutive years.

In 2023, China became Africa's second-largest destination for agricultural exports.

The 2024 FOCAC summit has produced concrete outcomes, charting a roadmap for China and Africa to work concertedly to pursue modernization, which is poised to enhance South-South cooperation and drive global development.

Cooperation with China propels industrialization, agricultural modernization in Africa: officials

Small- and medium-sized retailers across the United States "are getting hit the hardest" by disrupted supply chains, as U.S. tariff actions fuel market chaos and panic, a U.S. logistics industry insider based in China warned.

Sam Boyd, managing partner at Guided Imports -- a cross-border logistics company serving many American small businesses that rely on Chinese manufacturing -- told China Media Group (CMG) that the tariff policies introduced by the Trump administration have left many importers unsure about how to respond.

"Small- to medium-sized retailers and e-commerce companies, who are usually purchasing their goods close to when they're going out of stock, are getting hit the hardest. It's difficult for businesses to really understand what to do, so most of the businesses are just being forced to wait. And what they've learned over the last two-week period is that these escalations have no ceiling. The majority of our customers have opted to pause their shipments leaving from China. And the downside with this is that they're going to go out of stock," said Boyd.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), container imports to the U.S. are expected to fall by more than 20 percent year over year in the second half of 2025.

Boyd warned that the consequences of paused shipments could extend beyond inventory shortfalls, creating ripple effects that threaten port operations and U.S. domestic logistics.

"But there's an even more significant ripple effect that we're not quite aware of, which is: because so many businesses have chosen to pause their shipments and wait, we're creating a backup -- or a future backup -- that's going to be seen at U.S. ports. So let's say that there is going to be an event that solves this tariffs issue, and it's to everyone's liking enough that they can start placing orders again. By the time they all [those shipments] start arriving at the ports, it's going to create a surge. And this is going to create a surge in shipping costs, and it is going to create a surge in trucking within the U.S.," he said.

Boyd also questioned the U.S. government's repeated calls to bring manufacturing back home, arguing that such efforts are far from realistic given China's deep industrial capacity.

"The concept of reassuring is a very nice concept for those who are many degrees away from manufacturing. But China has so much experience with manufacturing that for any country -- whether it be the United States or one of China's neighbors that try to take over -- it's not going to be something that we can just flip a switch and all of a sudden, you know, a new country becomes the manufacturer," said Boyd.

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert