GABORONE - An African expert on Wednesday urged emerging markets in the continent to take advantage of China's rapid growing household consumption which has kept double- digit average annual growth since 2004, and likely to rise from 35. 6 percent in 2009 to 50 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.

Making a presentation on China in Africa at the Botswana Insurance Fund Management (Bifm) Offshore Investors Conference, Sanlam Investment strategist Alex Pestana said Africa will continue to be a key focus of Chinese investment.

He urged the region to see opportunities from this relationship as commodity producers especially agricultural producers and other sectors like tourism and travel should really start benefiting.  

Moreover, Pestana said sub-Saharan Africa is set to benefit from this rise of Chinese consumerism as the second largest economy will continue to seek mineral resources, food and agricultural land from the region.

"In 2015 China will be the largest consumer of luxury products, and resources are mined here," he said.

According to the latest report of the World Luxury Association, China's luxury goods market was worth $10.7 billion in 2010, or one-fourth of the world's total.

China has surpassed the United States in consumption of luxury goods in 2009 with a total spending of 9.4 billion dollars, second only to Japan. China is likely to surpass Japan as the largest luxury goods-consuming country in 2012.

He also said African countries should start developing policies for the agribusiness as it an inevitable investment opportunity.

Presenting on trends in the financial services industry, BlackRock (South Africa) President Rob Fairbairn said emerging economies should continue to be a source of growth as they are projected to account for almost three quarters of the global GDP growth over the next 15 years.

The annual Bifm Investor's Conference held in Gaborone under the theme "Managing Money in Challenging Times" aimed at sharing experiences and updating the trustees on their businesses was attended by managers of international investment portfolios and Bifm officials who made presentations on how they have been managing different portfolios in the current economic climate.