The UN officials say the report marks a new round of FDI in Africa, from developing Asian countries and enhancing of economic cooperation between the two sides. The fast-growing Asian economy hopes to set examples of development for African nations, and could contribute to Africa’s ability to attract, and benefit from further Asian FDI.

However, compared to Europe and the US, the report shows there remains a relatively low share of Asian FDI flowing into Africa. Why? Masataka Fujita senior official from UNCTAD, or the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development explains.

"First, there are limited competitive forms on both sides, Asian forms as well as African forms. For Asian forms, obviously, there are still developing competitive forms. Therefore, they have limited ownership advantage. Such as technology. What’s more, the transaction and information costs are higher when investing in Africa for Asian investors."

Fujita adds that Asian economies had just begun to build up an outward investment stock when struck by the financial crisis in 1997. So, investing abroad is still quite a recent phenomenon for many Asian firms. Their FDI in Africa certainly declined, following the crisis, but has recently begun to grow again. Most Asian FDI is inter-regional and both host-and origin-country regulatory frameworks constrain the expansion of FDI.

Asian FDI in Africa is still full of opportunities for both China and Africa. The ever-lasing, steady growth of Chinese economies strengthens the cooperation between the two sides. Africa will always be a good investment partner of China, explains Liang Guoyong, senior official in economics at UNCTAD. He is very confident that the investments are favorable for both regions, in terms of various fields, such as manufacturing, resource extraction, and the infrastructure etc.

"FDI in Africa could contribute its share back to the home-country. The most direct and remarkable contribution is an improvement in competitiveness for SMEs. For Chinese enterprises, the new outward FDI could improve their competitiveness. It could also facilitate the development of the infrastructure for import. So we can see this as a great opportunity for developing Chinese enterprises too."

Asian FDI in Africa is warmly welcomed by African governments. Here is Lesotho's, ambassador to China, Anthony Thibeli.

"Textile is the main field in this country. It accounts for an integral part of the national economy. There are many other investment fields, such as clothing, build[ing] materials and so on."

Thibeli says that, possessing a great market potential, Lesotho is a very attractive nation in the eyes of Chinese investors. Chinese investors become the good partners with local enterprises. The local government encourages more Chinese entrepreneurs to run businesses there. Cooperation between the two countries, in terms of trade and investment, is very promising.

The advance of Asian FDI in Africa is amazing, but Chinese investors, especially the small-and-medium enterprises should be aware of making full preparations before undertaking the process, since the Chinese government is still in the process of building a protective mechanism to cover SMEs that invest overseas.

What exactly should they do to achieve success? Please tune in to our next program to find out more.