Comic Con Cape Town 2025 closes

The Comic Con Cape Town 2025 concluded in South Africa on Sunday, after four days of celebration of pop culture and gaming among cosplayers, gaming enthusiasts, and comic book aficionados from around the world.

The third edition of the event gathered international exhibitors and visitors at the Cape Town International Convention Center, featuring a diverse array of entertainment, shopping opportunities, exclusive merchandise, and interactive panels for guests to engage their fans.

Through the comic con, global exhibitors, including those from China, have seen the growth potential of South Africa's animation industry fueled by increasing investments in creative content and global demand.

Rick, a Chinese trendy toy retailer who participated in the event for the first time this year, has a keen interest in expanding market presence in the country, buoyed by the popularity Chinese cultural commodities enjoyed among South Africans.

"[Our] market in Africa is quite small at the moment. I think it's because we haven't expanded yet. We're quite new we are only four months old. But we can see that there's a very big interest, obviously, and so I think there's definitely a market for it and you can definitely expand a lot more, especially if we get new designs in," he told China Central Television in an interview.

Carol Weaving, managing director for RX Africa, said the expansion of Comic Con Cape Town over the years indicates the growing interest of global animation industry players in the promising South African market.

"What we started off with one country, for instance, now we've got half a dozen countries that are all coming in because they know that Africa is the future. It's got a very young population, and obviously then there's massive retail opportunities," she said.

Comic Con Cape Town 2025 closes

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting