The Rwandan Ambassador to China launched a short video in Shanghai to promote Rwandan specialty coffee beans. Courtesy of respondents
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 29 Title: African countries share the dividends of the "Belt and Road" digital economy
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ma Xinran, Zhang Yuqi and Bai Ye
With a bottle of chili sauce in his left hand and a bag of black coffee in his right hand, Rwandan Ambassador to China James Kimonio brought goods to share goodies on a Chinese TV show at the end of 2021, becoming the "best spokesperson for Rwandan goods in China".
It wasn't his debut with goods. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, he has walked into the live broadcast room of China's e-commerce many times. In a show with goods, in just 5 seconds, 3,000 kilograms of coffee beans were snapped up by Chinese netizens. He also transformed into a "takeaway brother" to participate in the same-day delivery of domestic specialties.
Coffee cultivation is Rwanda's mainstay industry, with 1 in 30 people being coffee farmers. Affected by the epidemic, a large number of flights in Rwanda have been grounded, the price of international freight has doubled, the number of orders in the European and American markets has dropped sharply, and many Rwandan coffee farmers are facing the dilemma of having nowhere to sell coffee beans during the harvest season.
As the world's largest e-commerce market, China has more than 1 billion Internet users. The vigorous development of the digital economy has provided a breakthrough opportunity for Rwanda's traditional trade transformation, and has also contributed new impetus to the economic recovery and development of African countries that have joined the "Belt and Road" circle of friends.
According to data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, as Africa's largest trading partner, China's total bilateral trade with Africa in 2021 reached US$254.3 billion, an increase of 35.3% year-on-year. Among them, Africa's exports to China amounted to US$105.9 billion, an increase of 43.7% year-on-year. In the wake of COVID-19, China announced the cancellation of interest-free loan debt due at the end of 2020 in 15 African countries.
On October 9, 2021, in Nairobi, kenya' capital, Chinese youth Wang Yao (center) and his assistants filmed an e-commerce short video at the Kenyatta International Convention and Exhibition Center. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Yan
Yao Guimei, director of the South African Research Center of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "No matter how remote China's agricultural products are, they can reach consumers through e-commerce during the epidemic. China is also helping Rwanda and even Africa as a whole embrace the era of digital technology, which is the key to Africa's post-epidemic recovery and provides great opportunities for innovative development and improvement of people's livelihood. ”
According to statistics website Statista, the market size of e-commerce in Africa will reach $34.7 billion in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 17.1%. It is foreseeable that behind the "upward trend" of China-Africa economic and trade, there is still a huge blue ocean for cross-border e-commerce cooperation.
As the first Chinese e-commerce platform to set up overseas warehouses in Africa and achieve 100% online payment, Kilimall allows African residents to fill their "shopping carts" with items from all over the world.
The Kenyan youth Ovino began to work in the express delivery industry five years ago, and at first the average of one or two packages a day has increased to 70 or 80.
With the promotion of the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", China, as a world leader in the field of Internet consumption, provides Africa with experience and technical support in the development of the digital economy from multiple levels such as e-commerce cooperation, digital infrastructure, and mobile payment, helping the latter to enter the fast lane of development.
As of November 2021, China has built more than 50% of Africa's wireless sites and high-speed mobile broadband networks, with a cumulative total of more than 200,000 kilometers of optical fiber, serving more than 900 million African people; China and Africa have jointly established a public "cloud" serving the entire African region in South Africa, as well as the first 5G independent networking commercial network; China will also build a China-Africa satellite remote sensing application cooperation center, support the construction of China-Africa joint laboratories, partner research institutes, and scientific and technological innovation cooperation bases, and effectively help African countries narrow the "digital divide". Keep pace with the development of the global digital economy.
On November 22, 2021, in the village of Sindia, a suburb of Dakar, Senegal, villagers watched a program using a TV set-top box for the "Wancuntong" project built by China's StarTimes Group. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Yan
"The belt and road projects, including digital infrastructure construction, continue to be carried out, promoting connectivity and seamless trade, and have changed the face of Africa and the lives of ordinary people in Africa." Ilastas Mwencha, former Vice-Chairman of the Commission of the African Union (AU), said.
According to statistics, the number of Internet users in Africa has exceeded 460 million, and vivid cases of digital application scenarios have outlined the beautiful outline of "digital Africa". An international consultancy survey of Kenya's 2,456 residents found that 84 percent of respondents said digital devices and services have made their lives better, and nearly a third said the digital economy has helped them raise their incomes.
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation - Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021), adopted in 2018, proposes that China and Africa will "share experience in the development of information and communication, jointly grasp the opportunities of the development of the digital economy, and encourage enterprises to cooperate in the fields of information and communication infrastructure, the Internet, and the digital economy."
"China and Africa working together to build a 'digital Africa' and jointly develop and implement the 'China-Africa Digital Innovation Partnership Program' will help Africa achieve leapfrog development in the field of network information." Kenyan international studies scholar Kavins Adehill said that China has proposed to promote the development of the digital economy, and its development results have benefited Africa. (Contributors: Zhang Yujie, Bai Tiantian)