Agreements worth around 6.5 billion dollars were signed between South Africa and China in Pretoria on Wednesday during a two day state visit by President Xi Jinping.
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President Xi was seen off at the Harare International Airport by President Mugabe and First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (picture) began a five-day African visit yesterday, which he would use to showcase China’s expanding role as a protector of regional security as well as a provider of infrastructure and consumer of resources.
This was evident in the Zimbabwean visit, where Xi signed several investment deals involving key sectors, including power generation, construction and communications.
Xi headed to Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday (2 December) to co-chair the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation summit.
President Xi says relations between China and South African are in the “best shape” ever thanks to continued engagement on growth and investment.
With these new projects, the Chinese leader is set to erase any doubts about whether a slowing Chinese economy would continue to provide major support for the continent’s development and about how China’s relations with Africa will evolve in the future.
Mr Mugabe, whose country is struggling with mass company closures, high unemployment, low liquidity and foreign direct investment and food shortages, has said he and the Chinese leader will discuss “some of the projects and programmes we want China to assist us in undertaking”.
China has made a string of cheap loans in the past few years to countries in Africa, a continent which supplies oil and raw materials such as copper and uranium to the world’s most populous country and its second-largest economy.
“Although this approach has precipitated some benefit to African countries, including Zimbabwe, the advantage is often squarely in China’s favour”.
Xi later told a banquet held in his honour at Zimbabwe’s state house that he held comprehensive talks with Mugabe earlier and the two agreed to strengthen economic cooperation. USA authorities have said they are not considering lifting the sanction on Zimbabwe till the administration spells out reforms.
“China-Africa cooperation has now come to a stage where it needs to be upgraded and transformed”, Zhang Ming, the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, reportedly said in Beijing, adding that Africa was now at “the early stage of industrialization”.
However, according to the 2016 budget, Western countries are providing support to Zimbabwe to the tune of $180 Meanwhile Mr. Xi has left for South Africa where he will attend a summit on Africa China co-operation.
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Representatives from 120 media organizations in 47 African countries and some Chinese media participated in the summit, whose theme was “A new era of win-win media cooperation between China and Africa”.
