The 2024 China-Africa Private Sector Cooperation Forum, co-hosted by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), the Guangdong provincial government and the Bank of China, was held in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on Sept 7. Gao Yunlong, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), addressed the gathering.

Gao, who is also chairman of the ACFIC, noted that, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on Sept 5, China announced 10 partnership actions for modernization to deepen China-Africa cooperation, charting a new direction and injecting new impetus into China-Africa cooperation, and opening a new chapter of the all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.

Gao stressed that, in the process of advancing modernization, private enterprises must play a new role, make new contributions and shoulder new responsibilities. He called on private enterprises to fully leverage international production capacity cooperation, deepen cooperation with Africa in e-commerce and other areas and support the development of the Pilot Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation. He also urged the continuous expansion of China-Africa trade and investment, improving both the scale and quality of economic cooperation.

Efforts should be made to implement the industrial chain partnership action, and expand collaboration in emerging areas such as the digital economy, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture to support the industrial transformation and upgrading of African countries, he said.

Gao also called for efforts to implement the green development partnership action, urging private enterprises to strengthen cooperation with Africa in green infrastructure, energy and transportation to help nations on the continent integrate into the global green industrial chain.