At the end of 2021, the new session of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Senegal. Just a few days ago, it was announced that China will work with Africa to formulate and implement a China-Africa Partnership Plan on Digital Innovation, sharing the digital dividends between the two sides. 

To echo the event, the “African Products Online Promoting Season” of the FOCAC, which co-organized by the Internet Society of China (ISC), and the Hainan TV, will be organized from September to November, and its Launching Ceremony was held in Beijing on September 6th, 2021. 

The event will be composed of three parts: The Launching Ceremony, “The World’s Specialty" Africa Special Event, and a 3-month Online Promotion Season for African Products starting from September.

Mr. Wu Peng, Director-General of the Department of African Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the P.R.China, H.E Mr. Martin Mpana, Ambassador of Cameroon to China, and African diplomatic envoys to China,  and Mr. James Howe, Senior Adviser at the International Trade Centre, attended the Launching Ceremony and released special remarks through online/offline. 

At the launching ceremony, Hainan TV joined the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Hunan Sub-council, the CCPIT Zhejiang Jinhua Sub-council, and Alibaba in issuing the "E-commercial Platform Partnership Initiative for Promoting the Import of African Products".

Hainan TV and Taobao.com of Alibaba will conduct E-commerce livestreaming to promote the sale of African products, and will invite the African ambassadors in Beijing to join the livestreaming to introduce the culture, specialty, products of their hometown.

Noting that China proposed the "China-Africa Partnership Plan on Digital Innovation" not long ago, Wu Peng said, the African Products Online Promoting Season is just an important action to carry out this plan. This shows once again that the Chinese side never leaves any of its initiatives to "visions" or on paper only but translates them into actions in a planned manner. While boosting the shift of Chinese and African economy and society to digitalization and the expansion of consumption in both China and Africa, e-commerce helps African products tap the Chinese market. This not only allows Chinese consumers to buy African goods at a better price and increases China's imports from Africa, but is also conducive to pulling Africa through the current anti-pandemic difficulties and fulfilling the African people's aspirations for a better life. 

Ms. PEI Wei, Deputy Secretary General of ISC, expressed that "it is expected the event will promote the development of China-Africa economic and trade relations and economic recovery, serving the common pursuit of a better life for the Chinese and African people, and sharing together the dividends of digital economic development", said in her opening remark for the Launching Ceremony.