There are already more than 100 Chinese companies investing in Zimbabwe, said Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, “and there is a lot of interest in all sectors of the economy from Chinese investors”. After that, China and Zimbabwe have enjoyed frequent high-level exchanges. “Now the visit by President Xi is going to consolidate and cement some of the agreements and, in fact, to further co-operate with respect to those agreements which are not yet mature for signing”, Chinamasa said.
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“There are no sanctions with China and those banks that are affected by the USA sanctions can open direct currency trading accounts with Chinese banks without any upheavals or risk that their money can be seized”, Chanakira said. He added that China can also provide the continent with the technical support it needs to diversify and stabilize many African economies.
And so, as Ghulam Asmal, director of Nepad and worldwide partnerships in the Department of global Relations and Cooperation, said at a recent briefing on Focac: “The most challenging aspect of the relationship for Africa was to convince our Chinese partners to create more industrial capacity on the continent, to have more beneficiation, and to make this a development relationship rather than one which is extractive of natural resources”. Almost all vital infrastructure projects in Zimbabwe are supported by Chinese financial institutions and built by Chinese enterprises. The common people in Zimbabwe are optimistic about the prospect of China-Zimbabwe relations.
“It shows that the Chinese government is seeing a brighter future for Zimbabwe and they are showing confidence in the economy”.
Then, ambassador Huang introduced that last August, President Mugabe made a successful state visit to China, and reached consensus with President Xi on bilateral ties.
“The visit by President Xi is significant in terms of the economic recovery”. China’s Sinohydro Corp won the $1.5 billion bid to add two generation plants at Hwange in western Zimbabwe in October a year ago, in the most ambitious move yet to tackle the country’s crippling electricity shortages.
It’s the first trip since 1996 that a Chinese leader has taken to the African nation run by President Robert Mugabe.
The friendly ties between China and Africa are a ideal paradigm for Xi’s concept of “a new type of worldwide relations”.
“China’s vote in the United Nations will always belong to the developing countries”, Xi told the general debate of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly. Chinese dream and Zimbabwe’s dream of national rejuvenation overlap to a large extent.
“We’re still confident about China-Africa trade” because of positive developments in Africa including its growing population and abundant resources, Qian said.
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The summit is also set to prioritise major bottlenecks constraining Africa’s development, such as infrastructure and the lack of professionals. Therefore, China and Zimbabwe will sign agreements on cooperation in such areas. The suffering and hardships they have shared help them understand each other and cooperate for development. With the fast development of mutual cooperation, Zimbabwean people will share more and more development dividends.
