An increasing number of Chinese enterprises will consider Africa as the destination of their investment as the ancient continent has seen a better investment environment in recent years and the Chinese government has put forward a series of measures to encourage Chinese enterprises to start business here.

The total of China's investment in Africa has reached 6.27 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2005 and it has been channeled to the fields such as natural resources, infrastructure, architecture, textile, transportation and power.

The contracted projects undertaken by the Chinese side in Africa have ranged from house building, petrochemistry to electricity, transportation and telecommunication.

According to the statistics from the Import and Export Bank of China, over 100 enterprises of the 800 Chinese businesses with investment in Africa are middle or large-scale state-owned ones, while the majority of the rest are individual-run.

The extensive presence of Chinese enterprises enables them to be an unneglectable force in African business sector.

A fundamental reason for Africa's growing attraction to the Chinese enterprises is the improvement of investment environment in the continent. African economy has stepped out of the shadow of a lasting downturn and embraced a rare opportunity for development since 2003.

As the International Monetary Fund forecast, African countries will have an average economic growth rate of 5.9 percent this year. A report from the World Bank also pointed out that two-thirds of African nations made at least one reform to improve their business environment in 2005-2006, among which Tanzania and Ghana staged outstanding performance.

The tendency towards political stability, the steady economic growth, cheap labor force and favorable measures tailored to attract foreign investment have guaranteed that Africa is in a prime time in terms of investment environment since the 1970s.

In addition, the encouragement measures put forward by the Chinese government have added an impetus to the efforts of the Chinese enterprises to gain access to Africa.

Beijing announced a series of steps to strengthen the Sino-African economic and trade cooperation during the Beijing Summit of the Forum of China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) last November, offering an unprecedented new opportunity for the Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa.

The eight steps announced by Chinese President Hu Jintao to boost the pragmatic cooperation with Africa and five proposals put forward by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last November have all created sound conditions for the Chinese business to make investment in Africa.

"Stepping into Africa" brings about a win-win result for Africa and China.

The latest report from the World Bank said that China's investment in Africa is playing a positive role in boosting African economic growth and such impact will be greater in the future.