African performances on the "China-Africa Digital Intelligence Innovation & Entrepreneurship Young Leaders Forum" (Photo/Zhu Jialiang)

On the afternoon of December 13, Hangzhou, the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province kicked off the "China-Africa Digital Intelligence Innovation & Entrepreneurship Young Leaders Forum". The forum was jointly organized and guided by the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government, the Foreign Affairs Office of Zhejiang Provincial People's Government and the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province.

With the theme of "Digital Intelligence and Innovation for China-Africa Cooperation", the forum was conducted both in an offline and online manner. Nearly 100 representatives from Africa-related organisations, universities and enterprises from home and abroad attended the event.

China-Africa Digital Intelligence Innovation & Entrepreneurship Young Leaders Forum (Photo/Zhu Jialiang)

The Forum was attended by a number of African ambassadors and representatives in China, including Ibrahima Sory Sylla, Ambassador of Senegal to China, Martin Mpana, Ambassador of Cameroon to China, Teshome Toga, Ambassador of Ethiopia to China, Simon Pierre ADOVELANDE, Ambassador of the Republic of Benin to China, and so forth. They expressed their sincere hopes to strengthen cooperation with Zhejiang in the fields of the digital economy and digital trade to achieve a win-win situation.

In the past few years, China has been committed to supporting the development of new e-commerce and sharing its experience in technology development in China and Africa, and the level and content of cooperation between the two countries have been enriched, helping Africa to bridge the "digital gap". On the journey of building a new era of China-Africa community of destiny, China-Africa youths have a wide range of opportunities and bright prospects to promote the development of their countries and enhance the quality and efficiency of China-Africa cooperation. 

At the forum, the "Belt and Road" China-Africa Cooperation Industrial Park, the Digital Africa Culture and Trade (Tanzania) Project and the China-Africa Cross-border Trade Digital Settlement Platform (Uganda) Project were officially unveiled to the public. 

Zhejiang-Africa Industry Cooperation Alliance officially established (Photo/Zhu Jialiang)

Meanwhile, the Zhejiang-Africa Industry Cooperation Alliance was officially established. The alliance is initiated by the Zhejiang-Africa Service Centre and aims to help enterprises achieve breakthroughs in digital transformation. The alliance will integrate resources from the government, African embassies and consulates, overseas industrial parks, foreign institutions, universities/research institutes, business associations and other parties, respond to the concerns and needs of enterprises, and use "digitalisation" to tighten the network of services for enterprises. 

The metaverse "African Countries Cultural Exhibition Hall" was also officially launched at the conference. The project will incubate the construction of application scenarios based on "meta-universe plus tourism", "meta-universe plus business exhibition" and "meta-universe plus live e-commerce". It will accelerate the deep integration of metaverse-related technologies and service trade, actively lay out the China-Africa cooperation in the new era. 

Young Africans at the forum said that, China has awakened their entrepreneurial spirit. In the future, they will take the inspiration and encouragement gained from their study and living experience in China and combine it with the local needs of Africa to experiment and innovate more. 

Report: Fan Chenyu

Editor: Ye Ke