Aid for trade promotion, and new space for China-Africa digital cooperation

"Aid for Trade" connects aid with the trade and economic development of recipient countries, thus unlocking the bottleneck restricting the economic development of recipient countries by means of trade. As for China's aid, supporting Africa's digital infrastructure construction and digital talent training with aid for trade promotion will be the key to Africa's more dynamic and resilient development and 2030 sustainable development goals, which will also bring new development space for China-Africa digital cooperation.
First, strengthening trade promotion assistance to Africa will help promote the transformation of Africa's digital industry. On the one hand, the outbreak of the COVID-19 further highlights the great role of digitalization in education, health care, logistics and other fields, and is expected to increase the assistance to related fields in Africa. The development level of smart medicine, online education and other aspects in Africa will be improved. On the other hand, the aid for trade promotion for the digital transformation of traditional fields such as agriculture and industry in Africa will drive the transformation of relevant fields in Africa. Taking agriculture as an example, smart agriculture can not only apply Internet of Things technology to traditional agriculture to increase crop income, but also directly connect African farmers with external markets and open up product sales channels. China can provide more digital solutions for Africa's agricultural development by virtue of its own advantages in smart agriculture, smart logistics and other aspects, enabling the growth of Africa's agricultural supply chain and driving agricultural reform with digitalization.
Second, strengthening aid for trade promotion in Africa will help accelerate the process of regional integration in Africa. In global trade, Africa's trade development level is far lower than that of other regions of the world. In particular, intraregional trade in Africa only accounts for about 16% of its total trade, which is far lower than that of other regions of the world. The official launch of the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is expected to accelerate the integration of African industrial chain supply chain and regional economic integration, and stimulate the endogenous impetus of African development. Among them, the digitization of key elements such as trade process and payment system will be the key to reduce regional transaction costs and boost the construction of free trade zone on the African continent. Therefore, in a sense, digitalization is not only a goal, but also an important means to promote Africa's development. Based on this, China's effective experience in digital trade process, paperless trading system and trade supervision in aid to Africa for trade promotion can provide a development direction for promoting the digital transformation of the free trade zone on the African continent and improve its construction effect.
Third, strengthening trade promotion assistance to Africa will help create a larger market for Chinese enterprises. On the one hand, Africa's digital transformation helps improve Africa's business environment and enhance its attractiveness to Chinese enterprises. The weak infrastructure and imperfect market supervision system in Africa hinder the development of Chinese enterprises in African markets to some extent. The continuous improvement of digital infrastructure brought by the continuous development of trade promotion assistance to Africa will help attract Chinese enterprises, especially e-commerce companies, to develop the African market. On the other hand, China's assistance to Africa for trade promotion can promote more Chinese enterprises to participate in the process of digital transformation in Africa, and constantly accelerate and promote their own growth. The African continent is the continent with the greatest development potential in the world, and also a potential huge market for equipment and facilities in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). At present, Huawei, Chuanyin, ZTE and other enterprises have actively participated in Africa's digital projects and achieved remarkable results by providing information technology equipment and participating in the construction of local digital infrastructure.
Fourth, strengthening trade assistance to Africa will help China and Africa achieve digital standard accommodation. Influenced by historical and cultural factors, many industrial standards in Africa are quite different from those in China, and Chinese standards still face many blocking points when they go to Africa, which greatly hinders trade and industrial cooperation between China and Africa. In recent years, with digitalization gradually becoming an important area of international development cooperation, the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark and other developed countries have introduced digital foreign aid strategies, policies or initiatives. While strengthening assistance to Africa in digitalization, developed countries attach particular importance to promoting the development of digitalization-related policies, standards, laws and regulations in recipient countries, and emphasize the formation and promotion of unified and recognized standards. For example, the digital assistance strategy proposed by the United States in April 2020 aims to strengthen cooperation with allies and recipient countries, develop unified digital policies and standards, and strengthen interoperability between digital networks. Based on this, while helping African countries find their own standards and models through trade promotion assistance, China actively promotes the docking and integration of Chinese standards, especially in the field of ICT, with African standards, so that African products can enter the Chinese market more smoothly, fully benefit from the dividends of the Chinese market, and enhance the enthusiasm of Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa, thus further promoting the construction and development of Africa.
Fifth, strengthening aid for trade promotion in Africa will help improve global digital governance. There are many differences among countries in the digital development process, demand positioning, strategic planning and priority agenda formulation, relevant policies, standards, laws and regulations, which lead to the difficulty of effective coordination of global digital cooperation and digital governance. The vast majority of developing countries have to accept the rules formulated by developed countries because of their relatively lag in digital transformation. China's support for Africa's trade promotion assistance, especially for Africa's digital capacity building, not only helps Africa explore its own path of digital transformation, but also helps China-Africa cooperation to explore a rule system that reflects the interests and aspirations of developing countries, improve the ability to resist the suppression of international digital hegemony, promote the formulation of international rules in the digital economy and other fields, and make greater contributions to improving global governance.
The COVID-19 not only causes Africa to face greater development challenges, but also highlights the urgency of digital transformation. Based on this, China should continue to innovate its aid model, increase its aid for trade promotion, create opportunities for China-Africa digital cooperation and inject impetus into Africa's digital transformation.