China’s top economic regulator and the African Union Commission signed a memorandum of understanding for further cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The MoU signed on Monday focused on the establishment of the initiative’s cooperative working coordination mechanism, a statement released on the NDRC’s official website said on Tuesday.

The head of the NDRC, He Lifeng, and the African Union Commission chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, attended the first meeting to establish the initiative’s cooperative working coordination mechanism via video link.

The two sides exchanged views and expanded their consensus on cooperation in fields including COVID-19 pandemic prevention, food, energy, capacity investment, infrastructure, quality standards and statistics.

The deputy head of the NDRC, Ning Jizhe, Vice Commerce Minister Ren Hongbin and Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao attended the meeting.