China’s President Xi Jinping inked a clutch of trade accords Saturday on the first visit by a Chinese leader to Senegal in almost a decade, reports AFP from Dakar.

Senegalese President Macky Sall welcomed his counterpart to Dakar for afternoon talks before Xi continues a tour of the region Sunday, heading to Rwanda, then South Africa on Tuesday ahead of a BRICs summit of developing nations starting Wednesday.

Although details of the accords signed were not immediately forthcoming, Sall told reporters both leaders held talks on “bilateral cooperation, Sino-African relations and international current affairs”, hailing China as “one of the great economies of the modern era.”

He said China’s progress along the development path was a “message of hope” showing that “under-development is not fatal and the battle for progress is above all won by (having) a combative spirit.”

Xi responded in kind, telling Sall: “Every time I come to Africa I can measure the great dynamism of this continent.”

He added he had great faith in the future of Beijing’s cooperation with its African partners as it becomes a primary investor on the continent.

A report last year by Ernst and Young named China the single largest contributor of foreign directive investment with 293 projects embarked upon since 2005 for an outlay of $66.4 billion.

One piece of Xi’s business Saturday involved the formal handover to his host of the keys to a Chinese-built wrestling venue, the sport being hugely popular in the west African nation.

China is already Senegal’s second-biggest trading partner behind France, with bilateral trade surpassing $2 billion in 2016, according to official data.

The country’s main exports to China are nuts as well as the metals, zirconium and titanium.