Attendees take photo in front of a booth promoting African digital trade at the expo in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, on September 27, 2024. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

African officials and business representatives expressed their high expectations for  cooperation with China regarding digital transformation which can help with Africa's industrial upgrade at the ongoing third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE). 

The annual expo is held in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, from Wednesday to Sunday, an annual international expo that attracts companies from both home and abroad with cutting-edge products and diverse services.

Hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce and Zhejiang provincial government, one highlight of this year's edition is digital trade cooperation between China and African countries, the Global Times observed on-site. 

Speaking at the expo, Robinson Jean Louis, Ambassador of Madagascar to China, said through this event, Madagascar can boost fruitful cooperation with China especially in digital trade and innovation and he looks forward to leveraging this opportunity to bring more digital technologies to Madagascar.

Tichaona Mashiri, founder and CEO of DBI Intelligent Technology Group in South Africa, is excited about the new possibilities for his business here.

"We come here to see if there are companies that we can build partnership within areas such as telecommunications and cybersecurity, areas that our business operates in South Africa... There is a lot of things we can learn from this event in terms of technology exposure," Mashiri told the Global Times. The business opportunities are huge and there are technologies and products of Chinese companies which they can adopt back home in South Africa, Mashiri said. 

Data from China's Ministry of Commerce shows that China's digital trade is developing rapidly. In the first half of 2024, China's services trade delivered digitally reached 1.42 trillion yuan ($202 billion), an increase of 3.7 percent. During the same period, cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.22 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.5 percent. China-Africa trade has been an important part of the digital trend.

Through digital platforms, African products find more efficient way to enter the vast Chinese market, industry insiders said.

At the Africa booth at the expo, African products such as Ethiopian coffee, Kenyan tea, South African red wine and Nigerian cashews are on display. A professional host is promoting these products via livestreaming to Chinese consumers.

"We use cross-border e-commerce livestreaming and other platforms to bring Africa's high-quality products into the Chinese market in a more efficient and effective way... At the same time, we are also helping Chinese companies, including those in cross-border e-commerce and online payment, enter the African market, boosting the region's digital economy," Xie Qi, director of Zhejiang-Africa Service Center, a non-profit organization promoting trade between Zhejiang Province and African countries, told the Global Times.   

With digitalization being the global trend, China-Africa trade, which is highly complementary, will unlock more impetus for growth, Xie said.