Under the new dual-circulation development pattern, China's health market is providing huge business potential for foreign companies, with increasing demand from consumers of different age groups, and that in smaller cities and rural areas, said a senior executive of US-based nutrition company Herbalife Nutrition.

"Amid China's pursuit of the new development pattern, domestic market expansion is the basis for the domestic circulation. And there are many factors pushing up the growth of domestic demand such as growth in people's incomes and consumption upgrades," said Woody Guo, senior vice-president of Herbalife Nutrition and president of Herbalife Nutrition China.

"That promises huge market demand from not only different age groups in China, but also lower-tier cities and rural regions."

Apart from the burgeoning population of middle-income groups in China, the country's seniors, whose number is expected to reach 270 million in a few years, are paying more attention to health and quality of life. They are willing to, and also capable of buying quality supplements, Guo said.

Chinese young people too. The demand from young consumers is also forming an important driving force for growth in the health industry, he added.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 4.9 percent year-on-year in October, totaling around 4.05 trillion yuan ($633 billion). For the first 10 months, total retail sales of consumer goods in China hit 35.85 trillion yuan, up 14.9 percent year-on-year.

China has huge market potential and a complete domestic manufacturing sector, which is the most important advantage for the country and is also why the nation remains attractive to foreign investors, said Chen Wenling, chief economist at the Beijing-based China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Seeing the growing demand for health and nutrition products in China, Herbalife Nutrition has been enhancing efforts to expand presence in recent years.

During the fourth China International Import Expo held in Shanghai in early November, the company put on display many signature and popular products, such as sport nutrient series Herbalife 24 and immunity booster Best Defense.

Eying the fast-growing fitness-loving population in China, the company started localized production of its best-selling products Herbalife 24 in its Nanjing factory in Jiangsu province.

It has also resorted to cross-border e-commerce to offer Chinese consumers sought-after products overseas, such as those for supporting joints, eye care, weight management and immunity enhancement.

Last year, the company opened in Shanghai its first global product research and innovation center, the Herbalife Nutrition China Product Innovation Center, to shore up its production capacity in the Chinese market and better meet consumer demands.

It also established its first global digitalization office there, aiming to better support local service providers and enhance customer experiences through digitalized product management and data analysis.

The company's business models used to rely on offline operations, with salespersons offering services to customers offline. But as more customers are now using online channels, Herbalife launched its digitalization strategy in 2019 to integrate online and offline operations to better serve customers, Guo said.

"We are in the process to become 'digital being' from 'doing digital'," he said.

Compared with their foreign peers, young Chinese consumers prefer capsules and gels because of their better texture. The company's innovation focus in China will gradually transfer from design of product and packages to production lines, Guo said.

"Young people are among the most important targeted customers for us, and we care for their specific needs for product portability and flavors."

African leaders have expressed their commitment to climate action at the ongoing COP 26 summit, while urging developed economies to offer financial support to help African countries meet their climate targets.

In 2009, wealthy nations pledged to give developing countries $100 billion a year to help them tackle climate change, but at the beginning of the COP 26 meeting in Scotland last week they pushed back the beginning of the initiative to 2023.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the president of Ghana, said Africans were "naturally disappointed" with the decision.

"Those same nations are, however, insisting that we abandon the opportunity for rapid development of our economies. That would be tantamount to enshrining in the global community inequality of the highest order," Akufo-Addo told summit delegates on Nov 2.

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, said his country has developed a robust climate plan to keep carbon use low as the country pursues development.

The plan includes restoring degraded water towers, accelerating forest restoration and increasing tree cover to at least 10 percent of the country's land area as well as promoting a sustainable blue economy and green manufacturing.

Kenya will spend $5 billion on a tree fund on top of planting 2 billion trees and other green initiatives, Kenyatta said.

He said that while Kenya expected the detailed rules and procedures for implementing the Paris Agreement will be finalized at the meeting, "We also expect that the agreement will be sufficiently inclusive to accommodate the needs and priorities of developing countries and, in particular, the special needs and circumstances of Africa."

South Africa has committed to decommissioning or repurposing all its coal-fired power plants and rolling out renewable energy. Last week, the country announced an agreement with France, Germany, the UK, the US and the European Union to assist in phasing out coal use in South Africa.

In the initial phase of the partnership, $8.5 billion will be mobilized over the next three to five years to support South Africa's transition from coal reliance to clean energy.

"This will enable us to implement our ambitious goals and to develop a model for a just transition that we hope can be used elsewhere," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the summit.

Ramaphosa also wrote in the Financial Times last week that South Africa's 2050 carbon reduction targets, which are in line with the Paris Agreement, cannot be met "without more developed economies meeting promises they have made to provide financial assistance to developing economies in their energy transition".

Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio told the summit his country has identified environmental pressure points and is implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies.

However, he said, "Due to high debt servicing, we lack the fiscal space to scale up investment in climate change action," and added that Africa has access to less than 5 percent of global climate financing streams.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said in his address to the summit on Nov 1 that his country is undergoing a shift to clean transportation, developing sustainable smart cities, rationalizing water use and implementing projects to better manage coastal regions.

El-Sisi said the country recently issued green bonds worth $750 million to finance the projects. He added, however, that while Egypt understands its duties and is also aware of the magnitude of the challenges that all developing countries are facing, implementation of their climate change commitments was conditional on the amount of support they receive.

"We are concerned about the gap between the available funding and the actual needs of developing countries as well as the obstacles that our countries face to have access to it," the president said.

He said that while Africa is not responsible for the climate change crisis, it faces the most negative repercussions and the "subsequent economic, social, security and political consequences".

Issues from action against climate change to the revival of pandemic-hit economies will be discussed at a forum bringing together Chinese and African participants at the end of this month, with a Rwandan diplomat among the many expecting fruitful results from the bilateral cooperation.

James Kimonyo, Rwanda's ambassador to China, speaks in praise of the remarkable friendship between the two countries built up over the past 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and he looks forward to intensified cooperation via platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

"We have very high hopes. I think this (the forum) is going to be a very important platform. And the Chinese side, we believe, is going to make very big announcements about our cooperation," Kimonyo said in an interview with China Daily.

The eighth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will provide a good opportunity for the two sides to review the progress made since the last meeting in 2018, and it will set out a new blueprint for bilateral cooperation as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimonyo said.

This year's meeting will be held in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on Nov 29 and 30. On Friday, China and Rwanda will celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

Aside from the pandemic and climate change, Kimonyo said, participants at the meeting will discuss cooperation in infrastructure development and trade, with attention on how to boost exports of African products to China. Also on the agenda are ways to increase agricultural output and support small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa.

On COVID-19, the participants will look at ways to ensure the continent receives enough vaccines, in addition to strengthening its health systems in order for it cope with future pandemics.

"We think the timing is good. We went through the turbulent period. We are still fighting this pandemic but people are beginning to think about how to recover and get out of this situation," Kimonyo said.

At the last meeting of the forum, held in Beijing in September 2018, China announced action plans for bilateral cooperation covering areas including infrastructure, trade, green development, health and people-to-people exchanges. Many of the programs are already being carried out.

Steady development

Cooperation between China and Africa has undergone sustained development since the establishment of FOCAC in 2000, with bilateral trade rising 20-fold over the past two decades, and direct investment from China has soared by 100 times, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kimonyo said China has been a sincere friend of Africa for decades, and the two sides have always supported each other on many issues, including the fight against COVID-19.

"China did not start supporting Africa yesterday. China started to support Africa before it developed itself," he said.

China's history of financing projects in Africa goes back more than half a century ago, when China itself was a poor country. Many landmark projects have resulted from this support, the diplomat said.

"I want to underscore the fact that China was among the first to help African countries, including Rwanda, by providing personal protective equipment immediately when we recorded the first COVID-19 cases," he said.

China also was quick to announce that Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines would be made available as a global public good, and it has been donating the vaccines to many countries, including Rwanda, the ambassador said.

On Sunday, Rwanda received 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government, the second batch donated by China so far.