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HARARE, June 19-- The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on Wednesday hailed the launch of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo as a platform that will further boost trade and economic ties between the two sides. The inaugural expo is scheduled for June 27-29 in central China's Hunan Province. The bi-annual expo has been established under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as a new mechanism for economic and trade cooperation between China and African countries. UNECA Southern Africa Office director Said Adejumobi told Xinhua in an interview that the expo will provide African countries with an opportunity to explore trade and economic opportunities in the vast Chinese market. "It's an opportunity to expose the goods and services. It's an opportunity to broker networks, form partnerships and to really be able to learn lessons from the Chinese experiment," Adejumobi said. "China is perhaps the only country that has had the fastest transformation in the world. In less than 50 years, China's economy was dramatically transformed and I think African businesses going for the expo will be able to gain from the exposure, the interaction and the partnerships." He said the success story and dramatic transformation of China's tech giant, Alibaba, which now controls close to 40 percent of global online consumer shopping, should inspire many African participants at the expo. | 
