Sino-African trade volume has chalked up consecutive records since the turn of century: After exceeding the one billion US dollar mark in the year 2000, it approached 40 billion dollars in 2005. And it has surpassed 50 billion dollars so far this year and it is already a foregone conclusion for a growth range of 10 billion dollars for 2006.

Historically, Sino-African trade has undergone a period of slow but steady growth. It was only 12 million US dollars in 1950. It took a full decade to expand from 10 million to 100 million US dollars, and two ensuing decades to extend from one billion to 10 billion dollars. But it took only six years' time to grow from 10 billion to 50 billion dollars, with an annual growth rate of up to 30 percent for six years in a row. A relevant department estimates that Sino-African trade will exceed the 100 billion dollar mark by 2010, indicating a yearly growth of over 10 billion dollars in the next four years.

Successive new highs in the trade represents the crystallization of Sino-African comprehensive strategic cooperation, the outcome of mutual benefit and mutual "win-win" cooperation concept for both sides, and also the inevitable trend of a momentum growth in the economies of China and Africa in new historical conditions.

Fast growing Sino-African trade is built on a firm basis of rapid economic growth. China's economy has grown rapidly for more than two decades, and the international community unanimously anticipates its sustained growth will extend beyond 2020. Meanwhile, since the start of the new century, the economy of African nations has also embarked onto a fast-growth track. Along with a rapid growth of Chinese economy, and the continuous improvement and upgrading of China-made commodities, China's export commodities, as compared with products made by Western countries, gear all the more to demands of African consumers and benefit them substantially by enriching diversified African markets, cutting the locals' consumption costs and curtailing inflation.

In Sino-African trade, the Chinese side has taken various kinds of effective measures to import more from Africa, a major factor for chalking up new trade records. To date, China has granted the most favored nation (MFN) trading status to 41 African nations and levy "Zero" tax on 190 taxation items of products from the 28 least developed African nations, most of which are dominant products of African nations.

Diverse trade patterns have laid a basis for mutually beneficial and "win-win" Sino-African trade. At present, the trade has grown into a specially-designated period with a combination of general trade on one hand and numerous trade patterns on the other, including going in for foreign investment and contracting engineering projects and providing external aid. China had invested more than 6 billion US dollars in Africa and set up over 800 enterprises by the end of 2005.

In the process of conducting energy cooperation with African nations, China spurred the economic growth of the related nations through its investment in the sector of energy resources. It also attained mutual benefit with cooperative partners via its involvement in the construction of roads, bridges, hospitals and other infrastructural facilities as well as public utilities. Mutual benefit and "win-win" outcome also finds expression in Sino-African trade, which has maintained a basic balance over the years with a slight surplus for the African side.

In an effort to further promote Sino-African trade, two following aspects should be kept in mind. First, China's idea on building a harmonious society should be injected into the nation's relations with Africa and make Sino-African ties a fine example for a harmonious society, so that a sound political, economical and cultural environment is created for the continuous growth of Sino-African trade and new trade records. Secondly, sustained growth in Sino-African trade requires both sides to keep widening trade scope and deepening the ways of cooperation and advance toward the direction of trade liberalization and good service.

With the ongoing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as the turning point to mull over and spur the establishment of a Sino-African free trade zone, Sino-African trade will surely experience new surges under the framework of the largest global trade zone.

By People's Daily Online; The author of the article is Zhou Xiaojing, vice executive president of the Asia-Africa Development Research Institute of the Development Research Center under the State Council, or the central Chinese government, and vice-chairman of the Chinese Exchange Association on Asia-Africa Development.