By Senior Editor, China Africa News
Zhengzhou-China International Contractors Association (CHINCA) member firms, Chinese provincial authorities (notably Henan), and African stakeholders have renewed their commitment to scale up infrastructure projects across Africa at a time of strategic convergence.
At the annual CHINCA conference on 5 December 2025 in Zhengzhou under the banner “Henan and Africa, Hand in Hand for a Better Future” the gathering was cast not as a routine contractors’ forum, but as a launchpad for a sweeping reinvestment in Africa’s infrastructure and industrial future.
In a keynote address on behalf of the African Union (AU), Alhaji Dr. Sarjoh Bah the AU’s Permanent Representative to China expressed deep appreciation for CHINCA’s enduring role in enabling China–Africa cooperation in infrastructure and development.
With the AU now beginning the second ten-year cycle of its continental agenda Agenda 2063, he described the moment as one when private-sector capacity, African development goals, and continental trade integration meet under a shared vision.
Central to this vision are Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Bah pointed to successes across Africa in countries such as Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt and Rwanda where, under sound policy and enabling infrastructure, SEZs attracted investment, boosted industrial capacity and generated employment. With the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa now offers a unified market of roughly 1.4 billion people creating a platform where SEZs can serve as continental hubs for manufacturing, trade and regional value-chains.
But for that potential to be realised fully, Bah stressed, SEZs must rest on strong infrastructure efficient transport corridors, modern ports, dependable energy supply, robust ICT and logistics networks. Without those, even the best policy frameworks risk under-delivering.
He presented CHINCA the association representing many of China’s major international contracting firms as the natural bridge to make all this happen. With their experience, capacity and global reach, CHINCA members are well placed to support Africa’s infrastructure ambitions at scale delivering roads, railways, ports, power, industrial parks and more.
The conference also comes against a broader backdrop: just days before, African ambassadors in China and Chinese officials concluded a “Strategic Reflection” aligning the 2025–2027 Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Action Plan with Agenda 2063, reinforcing commitment to coordinated, long-term cooperation rather than isolated bilateral deals.
For Africa, this renewed partnership holds the promise of accelerated industrialisation, economic diversification, job creation, and deeper integration into global and regional value chains. SEZs and industrial parks underpinned by modern infrastructure and empowered by AfCFTA could transform economies long dependent on raw-material exports into manufacturing and processing hubs.
For Chinese firms and contractors, the future looks equally significant: a stable pipeline of large-scale, long-term projects across a unified and rapidly integrating continent; access to new markets in manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, logistics and trade; and the chance to play a central role in shaping an industrial Africa.
The “Henan and Africa” conference may yet be remembered as a turning point: when commitment replaced rhetoric, and the scale of ambition finally matched the scope of opportunity. What remains is implementation but for many in that Zhengzhou hall, the journey has already begun.
