LAGOS — Trade between China and Africa exceeded $220 billion in 2014, according to Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Gu Xiaojie.

The figures were revealed in a statement issued in Abuja on Nov 20 ahead of the Johannesburg Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation due in December.

China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for six years in a row with diplomatic ties with 50 African countries.

Gu said in the statement that China and Africa enjoy even closer relationships with growing political mutual trust, fruits of economic cooperation, and enhanced consultation and coordination in international affairs.

“When China established diplomatic ties with Egypt in 1956, the trade volume between China and Africa stood at roughly $12 million, while by 2014, it already exceeded $220 billion,” Gu said.

China has dispatched 24,500 medical staff to 49 African countries since the government sent the first medical team abroad on aid mission in 1963, according to the statement.

Chinese doctors have trained more than 6,000 local medical personnel, and offered diagnoses and treatment to more than 270 million people in Africa till 2014, the statement adds.

This year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is for the first time upgraded into a summit.

Gu said the historic Johannesburg Summit would witness the ever-growing of China-Africa relations evolving into a more mature stage.

He added the summit would push forward China-Africa cooperation which is described as “wide-ranging, all-directional and multilayered.”