Zhejiang Department of Commerce: Zhejiang-Africa economic and trade cooperation will still be in a period of great opportunities.

Dear Chairman Walid, Inspector Lang Dong, Leaders and Friends:

I am very happy to gather with you in the beautiful Hangzhou to participate in the Silk Road Escort · African Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone and Zhejiang Enterprise Matchmaking Meeting. On behalf of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the leaders and guests attending this event. And sincere greetings!

As early as 2018, President Xi Jinping put forward the "eight major actions" of China-Africa cooperation at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. In recent years, Zhejiang has always been guided by the eight major actions, taking Africa as the province's foreign economic and trade exchanges and national production capacity cooperation. Key area. Africa is rich in resources, huge market, abundant labor force, and most of them are in the process of industrialization, and there is a great demand for infrastructure construction and production capacity cooperation. Zhejiang is dominated by private enterprises with flexible systems and mechanisms. It has advanced technology and rich experience in the fields of energy and resource development, equipment manufacturing, infrastructure construction, railways, and communications. It is highly compatible with the needs of Africa's economic development. Zhejiang-Africa economic and trade cooperation will still be in A period of great opportunity.

As an economically developed province along the eastern coast of China, Zhejiang accounts for about 1% of the land area of mainland China and about 4% of the population, creating about 6.4 percent of the total economic output. In 2022, Zhejiang's GDP will reach US $1.15 trillion (equivalent to Indonesia, which ranks 17th in the world), and its per capita GDP has reached the level of middle-income countries. The private economy is the main force of Zhejiang's economy, accounting for 66.13 of Zhejiang's total economy. In 2022, Zhejiang, the top 500 private enterprises in China, accounted for 107 seats, ranking first in China for 24 consecutive years. Hangzhou's net talent inflow rate from 2016 to 2021 ranked first in the country for five consecutive years. In 2022, the province's total import and export volume was 700 billion billion U.S. dollars, ranking third in the country; foreign direct investment was 13.04 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 1/6 of the country's total, ranking second in the country, and the actual use of foreign capital was 19.3 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 10.2 percent of the country's actual use of foreign capital. A total of 204 Fortune 500 companies have invested in 688 enterprises in our province. Zhejiang has the Yiwu small commodity wholesale market known as the "world supermarket"; Ningbo Zhoushan Port, which has the world's largest cargo throughput for 14 consecutive years (container throughput exceeds 33.35 million TEUs in 2022). Zhejiang's huge economic volume, high degree of economic extroversion, and active private economy have created huge space for further economic and trade cooperation between Zhejiang and Africa.

Egypt is an important partner of Zhejiang in Africa, and the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides is very close. Especially in recent years, the two countries have rooted in complementary advantages, based on mutual exchange of needed goods, and effectively promoted trade and investment cooperation between Zhejiang and Egypt, which has benefited the two peoples and produced the fruit of friendship. In 2022, the bilateral trade volume between Zhejiang and Egypt will reach 4.78 billion billion US dollars, and the trade category covers people's livelihood products such as textile and plastic products and oil and gas products. Egypt has invested in 273 enterprises in Zhejiang, with a total investment of US $47.76 million. Zhejiang has invested in 34 enterprises in Egypt, with a total investment of US $1.005 billion, accounting for 22.52 percent of the province's total investment in Africa. The outstanding multinational companies in our province, such as Jushi Group, Zhenshi Group and Chint Group, have invested and bought properties in Egypt.

In the future development process, we hope to further consolidate and improve the quality of Zhejiang-Africa cooperation and promote the common development of both sides. To this end, we will be committed to industrial cooperation to consolidate the foundation of economic and trade cooperation, to facility connectivity to participate in the construction of people's livelihood in Africa, and to people-to-people exchanges to enhance the friendship between Zhejiang and Africa. At the same time, we also hope to do a good job in the overall and long-term planning of overseas parks from a national perspective, strengthen systematic planning, and effectively give full play to the industrial and security advantages of mature parks. form a joint force through cooperation in attracting investment and sharing resources. Zhejiang supports enterprises from the province to settle in mature parks such as Tianjin TEDA. At the same time, it also welcomes enterprises from other provinces to settle in our province's overseas economic and trade parks in Africa, so as to further exert the agglomeration role of existing overseas parks and more effectively exert the radiation effect. Provide greater support for China-Africa cooperation and enterprise development.

Finally, I wish this docking meeting a complete success and hope that all the guests and friends attending the meeting will have a full harvest.

Thank you!

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