In the recently concluded China-Africa aviation forum held in Zhuhai province this week, the commercial councilor for Asia and Africa in Guangdong Shu Limei pledged that China is planning to assist and train 500 African aviators each year. These trained aviators would then work on assisting Africa's aviation industry to grow.

Shu said, "We will help Africa to deal with challenges such as backward infrastructure and low financing. Aviation is one of the areas of cooperation in infrastructure between Africa and China."

Aviation is an integral part of Chinese and African relations as at least 73 million tourists travel between Africa and China in 2014 alone.

Both China and Africa would benefit from this partnership. China has been working on expanding its operations to Africa, seeing it as a robust market for its new aircrafts. Africa has been slowly replacing its old aircrafts to make way to new ones. So far, China has entered to cooperation agreements with 12 Arican countries in order to open more opportunities in the aviation sector.

China was also able to expand its operations in Africa thanks to its improving bilateral relations with African countries. As a result, commercial flights with direct routes were opened from China to Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia and Mauritius.

In 2005, the Republic of Congo was the first country in Africa which operated China's MA60 aircraft after purchasing three units from Beijing.

In the side of the Africans, Uganda Air Cargo Corporation General Manager Eng. Fed Kyankya said that the low investment in the African aviation sector has created huge operational challenges. He also said in the same aviation forum, "We largely operate old equipment that is retired from markets in Europe, Middle East and Asia. This explains the declining safety record."

Both countries are also working together to improve other infrastructure in Africa such as the improvement of the railway system in Kenya and Rwanda.