This photo taken on August 29, 2024 shows the logo of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) near China National Convention Center in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua

Emerging industries such as electric vehicles (EVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) play a very big role in China-Africa cooperation, Allan Majuru, CEO of ZimTrade, the national trade development and promotion organization of Zimbabwe, told the Global Times on Friday on the sidelines of the eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs.

"China has worked on AI and green (transition) before and we believe that we can learn a couple of things from China on how they worked out," said Majuru. "China's modernization has moved fast both in terms of infrastructure and also in EVs and other sectors."

"We are here not only to do business but to learn. There has been a lot of exchange learning that has happened between China and us and that has enabled us to bring expertise back home. We believe we can learn a lot from China to make sure that when we go green in Zimbabwe, our roadmap is also carried by international best practices," Majuru noted.

Green development, including the launch of 30 clean energy projects in Africa, was among the 10 partnership actions that China unveiled on Thursday, aiming to jointly advance modernization with Africa in the next three years, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The 10 actions span over areas of mutual learning, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, green development and common security.

"There was a roadmap, a 10-point plan, that was put in place during the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to support our development. It's quite significant for us," said Majuru, adding that the summit is going to be mutually beneficial.

In terms of the potential of economic and trade cooperation, Majuru said that there are a lot of areas in focus.

For Zimbabwe, the cooperation focus is agriculture. China is the biggest importer of its agricultural products. "China is not only buying from us, but also investing so that we can source for ourselves. And the good thing is, we are now focusing on value-added exports," said Majuru.

He stressed that trade between China and Zimbabwe has been increasing for five years and it's going to grow more. "We will participate in events like the CAETE (China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo) and CIIE (China International Import Expo), which will help us grow our footprint in China."

In 2023, trade between China and Zimbabwe totaled $3.12 billion, up 29.9 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China.

"I think for us (Zimbabwe), most of our trade coming from China is based on machinery equipment. If we can get more of that into our country, we can modernize ourselves. Modernization is quite key for us. We are grateful for that plan (put in place at the 2024 FOCAC) and also the resources that have been put in place to make sure that we support the same plan," said Majuru.

Majuru stressed that Zimbabwe is in the process of modernizing. He believes that there is a lot of technology that they can import from China and use back home. And also there are a lot of products that they can get from home to bring back to China.

Majuru also pointed out that it is important to make sure that trade among African countries is made easy. "The support that we're going to get from China in terms of infrastructure development and modernization is going to help us facilitate trade."

Trade can be seamless and efficient with the necessary infrastructure put in place, which can make transport, goods and services very efficient, Majuru said, noting that if more emphasis is put on infrastructure going forward, it will help Africa when implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area.