Page 48 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 25
P. 48
Food health
communities, staged a blockade authorised to supply food to China has established bilateral
of the port.[20] Despite the urban communities. Fresh e-commerce cooperation
strong community resistance, produce such as vegetables, mechanisms with over 30
the Chinese companies are fruit and meat often made up countries, prioritising Southeast
eager to fish in Pakistan’s the majority of the delivery, as Asia because of its proximity
waters as they can sell the residents were not allowed to and large Chinese diaspora.[21]
catch back home duty-free. go out for two to three weeks if
their residential area was under One recent BRI e-commerce
E-commerce: a speed train for quarantine. Added to this, project was established in
agribusiness many wet markets and street Cambodia. In June 2022,
vendors were forced to close. China’s Jiangsu Province
As China moves away from the launched a “Silk Road
BRI’s previous focus on large- After the zero-Covid policy E-commerce” project that it
scale, debt-laden infrastructure was lifted, China’s digital said would enable Cambodian
investments, support for digital giants immediately launched small and medium-sized
trade infrastructure and the different promotional plans enterprises to export high-
accompanying opportunities to retain their consumers in value agricultural products to
with e-commerce are moving different cities, establishing the Chinese market.[22] But,
up the agenda. At the 2023 BRI community agents to promote so far, the visible beneficiaries
Forum, Beijing indicated that and coordinate collective are major Chinese companies
it was looking to e-commerce buying among neighbours. and powerful Cambodian
as the vehicle that bring food Numerous pick-up stations businessmen with large
from BRI nations to the bowls have been set up in residential agricultural holdings.
of Chinese consumers. or business areas, supplying
huge amounts of fresh food, The Silk Road E-commerce
E-commerce is booming in including meat, seafood, project runs through JD.com,
China, thanks to the rapid vegetables and fruits. China’s largest e-commerce
adoption of smartphones, platform, and is overseen by
widespread internet access, To deal with growing the China-based conglomerate
and the availability of digital competition, China’s Jiangsu Taihu (Cambodia)
payment systems such as e-commerce food sector International Economic
Alipay and WeChat Pay. giants are looking to diversify Cooperation Zone Investment
China’s zero-Covid policy their products by importing Co., which is also the operator
gave an especially big boost premium agricultural products of the largest industrial park in
to e-commerce in the food from Southeast Asia such Cambodia, the Sihanoukville
sector. During the Covid as Thailand, Malaysia and Special Economic Zone
period, e-commerce platforms Cambodia, and are advocating (SSEZ).
like JD.com, Meituan, Alibaba for mechanisms within the
and PingDuoDuo were BRI to facilitate this. To date, Read Complete Article HERE
48 | we tell the true afrikan story
