DEVELOPING a sense of urgency around how to make the most out of Africa's burgeoning trade with Asia, and China in particular, will help the continent to "tame the dragon", rather than being tamed by it.

Africa this year came under much scrutiny by China as the Asian giant beefed up trade and investment ventures on the continent. Beijing also hosted a conference on trade and business with African leaders. The conference, which took place in November, was dubbed a diplomatic success since it reportedly cemented an already good relationship between African countries and China. Trade between China and African nations jumped 39% to $32,17bn in the first 10 months of 2005, according to official Chinese customs figures.

These figures represent a record high and analysts say the surge has been fuelled by China's increased imports of African oil, most notably from Sudan and Angola. Africa is also buying more Chinese-made goods, the figures show. China is investing heavily in African oil exploration to meet its rapidly growing consumption. However, trade figures clearly indicate that China imports less from the continent than it exports to Africa, with the trade imbalance particularly in favour of the Asian country.

China has made its agenda clear on Africa: it is interested in energy and minerals to boost its growth. Africa so far seems to be content with a flow of cash in the form of oil exports, soft loans from Beijing, mining exploration and exploitation rights. This is insufficient as it reproduces the European model of exploiting Africa, which did not prove wholly beneficial to the continent and has kept it at the periphery of global trade. In this context one might ask what Africa's response should be.

A hint of the continent's likely response was given by the African Union when it convened a meeting of African trade specialists in Addis Ababa in mid-September to try to help African leaders take full advantage of a growing relationship with the emerging south (China, India, Brazil).

Using available African expertise to identify areas of opportunities is one way to go about taking on the Chinese challenge. Many opportunities to grow trade with Asia and China in a beneficial way have been missed because of the continent's failure to understand the necessity of putting together teams of experts with the sole purpose of setting up strategies to put the continent in a strong position vis-a-vis Asia.

For instance, African traders woke up late to the fact that their Indian counterparts were benefiting most from China's huge market for cashew nuts - an important component in the daily diet of millions of Chinese.

A second important step in providing a response to the challenge of how best to benefit from China's appetite for investment is to empower African trade and investment negotiators. The point was highlighted by Ken Kwaku, a special adviser to the board of trustees of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa, at the fourth Africa-Asia business conference held in Dubai last month.

Kwaku pointed out that it was important for African experts to be provided with the necessary negotiating skills to allow them to understand how to structure trade and investment deals in a way that benefits the continent as well as the investor. Zambia's Copperbelt, where there is strong discontent about low pay and horrific labour conditions in Chinese mining operations, is a telling example of some countries' failure to tailor investments deals that benefit the locals.

Triangular opportunities, in which businesses from neighbouring countries team up to build capacity to negotiate deals with an Asian company, should also be encouraged. These kinds of initiatives strengthen the negotiating capacity of a country or a region.

Trends show that Asia, and China in particular, will continue to turn to Africa as a source of much-needed energy and raw materials. Their economic wellbeing is at stake.

This is an opportunity for Africa to increase its importance and place in world trade, provided it understands that this is a chance not to be missed. It is crucial that Africa puts its best brains on the job of developing a trade and investment strategy. Africa needs to accelerate fast to catch up with Asia in terms of trade. Otherwise it might be too late.