Hunan Provincial CPPCC Holds Seminar to Deliberate on the Development of New Barter Trade and Boost Deepened Economic and Trade Cooperation between Hunan and Africa

Hunan Province CPPCC Holds a Seminar on Accelerating the Development of New Barter Trade to Promote Deep Cooperation between Hunan and Africa

Recently, the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference CPPCC held a seminar on accelerating the development of new barter trade and promoting deep cooperation between Hunan and African economies. Attendees included officials, enterprise representatives, and professional scholars who discussed how to promote economic exchanges and cooperation between Hunan and African countries through innovative trade models.

In recent years, with the changes in the global economic landscape, traditional trade methods have faced many challenges. In this context, barter trade, as an ancient form of transaction, has regained vitality. It refers to a trading method where both parties exchange their respective goods or services without using money as a medium. Compared with the traditional cash payment model, this trade form can effectively avoid risks brought by exchange rate fluctuations and also provide new development opportunities for resource-poor areas.

As one of the important provinces in central China, Hunan has unique advantages in promoting foreign economic and trade cooperation. On the one hand, Hunan has abundant natural resources and a mature manufacturing system; on the other hand, the vast land area and diverse ecological environment of the African continent have nurtured a large amount of underdeveloped resource potential. Strengthening economic and trade exchanges between the two regions not only helps achieve complementary advantages but also promotes common development.

At the seminar, several experts pointed out that the main factors restricting economic and trade cooperation between Hunan and Africa lie in information asymmetry and technical barriers. Therefore, they suggested establishing and improving relevant legal frameworks to provide legal guarantees for new barter trade; at the same time, efforts should be made to increase the application of information technology, use big data platforms to enhance market transparency and reduce transaction costs.

The participants also emphasized the importance of talent cultivation. Due to involving cross-cultural communication and cooperation, professionals engaged in such businesses are particularly scarce. A sound education and training mechanism needs to be established to cultivate a team of talents who are proficient in professional knowledge and familiar with international rules to meet the growing demand.

It is worth mentioning that according to the African Development Report 2025, many Chinese enterprises have begun to try adopting barter trade methods to explore the African market and have achieved initial success. For example, a large machinery equipment manufacturer successfully implemented a case involving the export of dozens of excavators to Nigeria. By using part of the sales revenue to purchase local agricultural products, a win-win situation was achieved.

However, despite the promising prospects, there are still many difficulties to be solved in actual operations. For instance, how to ensure the quality of goods? How to reasonably determine the exchange ratio? These are practical problems facing us. In response, relevant personnel stated that they would continue to deepen research and seek more partners to jointly explore the best practice paths.

In conclusion, accelerating the development of new barter trade and promoting deep cooperation between Hunan and Africa is a long-term and arduous task. Only by working together can we truly achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. In the future, we look forward to seeing more similar innovative measures take root and contribute to building a closer community with a shared future.