Mozambican President Daniel Chapo visits equipment manufacturer SANY Group in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province, during his trip to China. Photo: X account of President Daniel Chapo

Central China's Hunan Province, a key locality in developing trade ties with African countries, aims to ramp up its foreign trade with Africa to 80 billion yuan ($11.86 billion) by 2028, according to a three-year action plan posted on the provincial government's website on Sunday.

The action plan focuses on 12 key African countries, aiming to build about 10 landmark projects involving production capacity cooperation and create one or two pilot projects under the "Two Countries, Twin Parks" model. The plan also aims to establish a service system for economic and trade cooperation with Africa.

The action plan highlights six of the province's competitive industries - mining, automobiles and parts, construction machinery, medical devices, modern agriculture, and green energy - and specifies differentiated and industry-specific development paths to form a full-chain and actionable road map.

The road map is one of the seven major measures outlined by Hunan to further improve trade and economic cooperation with African countries. The move is also aimed at tapping into a national policy that took effect on May 1, which expanded zero-tariff treatment to cover 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China.

In 2025, Hunan's trade with African countries totaled 58 billion yuan, ranking first for the seventh consecutive year among China's central and western provinces.

A Chinese analyst said on Sunday that as a locality and free trade zone that pioneers in China's trade and economic cooperation with African countries, Hunan enjoys a high level of industrial complementarity with African trading partners. Deepened cooperation between China and Africa will have particular significance amid the global headwinds of protectionism, said the analyst.

"The province's leading construction machinery sector could fit African countries' need to upgrade their raw material trade greatly and boost local industrialization. There is a perfect match of advanced Chinese production capacity with local development needs by these countries seeking to diversify their exports category," Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Hunan has in recent years beefed up exchange and training programs for African experts, and emerging sectors such as agricultural products processing will serve as the new growth drivers of the province's cooperation with trading partners on that continent, building on the new opportunities brought by China's opening-up and a notable rise in African agricultural exports to China, Song said.

In particular, the action plan calls for improving supporting facilities for mining projects in Africa, expanding the scale of resource shipments back to China, boosting exports of mining equipment, and gradually building mining testing laboratories and setting up an investment fund for exploration in Africa in the mining sector.

The province also looks to increase exports of knocked-down vehicle kits, explore ride-hailing markets in key African countries, and expand used car exports in the automotive and parts sector and speed up product market certification to promote exports of medical equipment and supplies through China-Africa friendship hospitals in the medical device sector.

In the construction machinery sector, the action plan calls for improving alignment with Chinese-invested major infrastructure and mining engineering projects in Africa, expanding exports of branded machinery, and promoting exports of remanufactured construction machinery.

For modern agriculture, the province will set up integrated centers in Africa for agricultural machinery production, sales, and services, simultaneously cultivate projects that integrate production and trade, and coordinate the expansion of exports of competitive products and imports of distinctive African agricultural products.

In the first seven months of 2026, China's total trade with Africa reached 1.66 trillion yuan, up 18.9 percent year-on-year, closely trailing the growth rate of ASEAN at 20 percent year-on-year and making it one of China's fastest-growing trade partners.

The value of exports to Africa grew by 20.4 percent while that of imports shot up by 16.4 percent.