Trade between China and Africa expanded by 8.1 percent year on year in the first four months of 2025, reaching 103.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to data released by China's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.
The ministry highlighted the steady growth of trade cooperation between China and African countries, with bilateral trade hitting a record high of 295.56 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.
China has maintained its position as Africa's largest trading partner for the 16th consecutive year, according to the ministry.
"We have actively expanded unilateral opening up, and have given the least developed countries in Africa zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines. Measures such as the 'green lanes' for African agricultural exports to China and the promotional shopping festival for African products allow an increasing number of African specialties to enter the Chinese market and achieve strong sales," said Shen Xiang, director of the West Asia and Africa Department under the Ministry of Commerce.
Data from the ministry shows that Chinese investment and contracted projects in Africa continued to expand. From January to April this year, China's direct investment in Africa across various industries reached 830 million U.S. dollars, and the value of newly-signed engineering contracts in Africa totaled 20.67 billion U.S. dollars, with completed turnover of 11.26 billion U.S. dollars.
By the end of 2024, China has signed cumulative engineering contracts worth 1.2137 trillion U.S. dollars in Africa, with a total turnover of 754.4 billion U.S. dollars.
"We have strived to foster industry cooperation growth clusters with Africa, encouraged enterprises to combine Africa's resource endowment and industrial development plans, and deepened China-Africa investment cooperation in the fields of agricultural product processing, home appliances, logistics and new energy. We will also launch a China-Africa economic and trade in-depth cooperation service fund to support investment and cooperation of small and medium-sized enterprises. We support local provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in their cooperation with Africa, help enterprises expand their overseas operations, continuously form an increase in China-Africa trade and investment, so that China-Africa mutually beneficial cooperation will yield more fruitful results," said Shen.
China-Africa trade volume up 8.1 pct year on year in Jan-April
China-Africa trade volume up 8.1 pct year on year in Jan-April
Serbian officials and scholars expect that President Aleksandar Vucic's visit to China will further cement the ironclad friendship between the two countries and open up new avenues for cooperation.
At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Serbian President Vucic arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a state visit to China from May 24 to 28. During the visit, the two heads of state will exchange views on bilateral relations, as well as international and regional issues of mutual interest.
As the first European country that has agreed to jointly build a community with a shared future for the new era with China, Serbia is an important partner for China in Southeast Europe. According to high-level Serbian officials, the partnership could expand even further.
"I think that the most important one, apart [from] the infrastructure, will be scientific cooperation and widening the existing cooperation in each field, from infrastructure to culture. Our anchored friendship could become a role model for everyone else," said Marina Ragus, deputy speaker of Serbia's National Assembly.
Bojan Lalic, director of the Belt and Road Institute in Belgrade, anticipates that actions following the two presidents' discussions can bring stability to Serbia's economic and industrial development.
"We expect President Vucic and President Xi to have fruitful discussions, but also some following steps that will bring stability to our economy, to our industry. I truly believe that when speaking about the future, we are speaking about young people, (which) means education, research, science -- those are fields that I believe are fundamental for our exchange, for our future cooperation, and for our win-win achievements and success," said Lalic.
Ljubodrag Savic, a professor at the Faculty of Economy of the University of Belgrade, highlighted the importance of growing trade between the two countries. Since the signing of a bilateral free trade agreement in 2023, exports from Serbia to China nearly doubled, from 1.2 billion U.S dollars the year the agreement was signed to 2 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.
"China treats all countries equally, regardless of their size or so-called importance, maintaining friendly relations with countries around the world. The free trade agreement signed between Serbia and China grants Serbia preferential treatment. Most Serbian products can be exported to China almost duty-free. China is a truly valuable friend to Serbia," said the professor.
Serbian experts predict fruitful outcomes from Vucic's visit to China
