Hunan successfully held the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) in 2019 and 2021, which has facilitated resources gathering for Hunan's cooperation with Africa. The Information Office of Hunan Provincial People's Government held a press conference on the 3rd CAETE on June 6, 2023. It introduced the remarkable achievements of Hunan in economic and trade cooperation with Africa since the first session in 2019.

New breakthroughs have been made in platform construction. The Pilot Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation construction is in full swing. The exploration of new barter trade mode with Africa is accelerated. The building of "six centers" such as the Africa non-resource products distribution and trading center and the China-Africa cross-border RMB center is in steady progress.

Business with Africa has shown fresh vitality. Hunan expanded the import of African-made quality products, launched the "African Brand Warehouse" project, and introduced 106 African brand products to major shopping malls. Relying on the Gaoqiao Grand Market, Hunan has promoted construction and operation of six import industrial chains, including coffee, nuts, dried peppers, sesame, peanuts, and wood products, and four export industrial chains of small agricultural machinery, small hardware, pre-packaged food, and daily necessities. It completed the first trial order of pre-packaged food through market procurement trade with African suppliers.

Key projects have brought in fruitful outcomes. Hunan has supported seed enterprises to experimentally plant hybrid rice in 16 African countries, and carried out breeding, high-yield demonstration, large-scale planting, and technology transfer cooperation in 11 countries to realize hybrid rice commercialization. The province has also extensively participated in infrastructure construction in Africa, and constructed a number of projects such as Senegal's competitive wrestling arena, Algeria's north-south highway, and Uganda's Karuma hydropower station.

Trade channels have been further expanded. Hunan has advanced the construction of the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal transport channel, launched the "Hunan-Guangdong All-in-One Port" service, and set up a "one-stop" international logistics channel service platform. Following the opening of the passenger route from Changsha to Nairobi, Kenya in 2019, the cargo route from Changsha to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia opened in 2022, which helped build a convenient air route between Hunan and Africa.

A new mechanism has been established for exchanges with Africa. Hunan has formulated the implementation plans of counterpart contact mechanism of economic and trade cooperation between cities or prefecture and African countries. Since the end of this April, Hunan's 13 cities and one prefecture have sent delegations to their counterpart African countries. They publicized the third CAETE, introduced the conditions of the province and the cities, and extended business invitations on behalf of the provincial government.

Various resources for cooperation with Africa have converged on Hunan, adding new impetus to Hunan's trade with Africa. The Hunan-Africa trade volume hit 55.66 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of 42.8% year on year. It ranked eighth in the country and topped in central China. In the first four months of this year, the trade volume reached 22.04 billion yuan, a 90.4% increase compared to the same period last year.