Trade between China and Africa rose 40.5 percent year on year to 139.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of the year, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said Friday.

China’s imports from Africa climbed 46.3 percent year on year to 59.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months, with imports of rubber, cotton, coffee and other agricultural products doubling from the same period last year, Qian said at a press conference on the impending second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo.

China’s direct investment in Africa reached 2.07 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months, outperforming the pre-pandemic level in the same period of 2019, Qian said.

Chinese enterprises and African businesses have boosted cooperation on industrial and supply chains, construction of industrial clusters on manufacturing, agriculture, medicine and health, and exploration on emerging sectors such as clean energy, digital economy and 5G, he noted.

The second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo will be held in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, from Sept. 26 to 29, with a slew of online and offline activities.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expo will build a cloud platform to hold online conferences, exhibitions and transactions.

A report on China-Africa economic and trade relations is expected to be released at the expo.