Chinese President Xi Jinping (3rd L) and his wife Peng Liyuan (4th L) greet dignitaries as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (L) looks on in Harare, December 1, 2015.
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Vice Presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, service chiefs and several senior Government officials were also at the airport to bid farewell to the Chinese leader.
Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday that were expected to focus on boosting investment and trade worth around $20 billion dollars (13.38 billion pound) a year.
“While the communication and cooperation between Chinese and African media have been booming in recent years, a lot more can still be done in the future”, the president added.
South Africa is China’s biggest economic partner on the continent, receiving about US$13 billion in Chinese investment and home to about 400,000 Chinese businesspeople.
Most of the buildings which make up the well-equipped orphanage were financed by a South African businessman known as Jack Ping, before he and Zimbabwe’s first lady fell out over a mining deal.
“Zimbabwe’s parlous economic situation – a 45 percent decline in GDP between 1999 and 2008, a 90 percent jobless rate, chronic food insecurity, a yawning infrastructure deficit – Xi’s visit raises expectations of what China can, or should, do to help its stricken ally”, said The Source publication in Harare on Tuesday.
China and South Africa should strengthen partnership in various aspects, Xi noted, calling on the two countries to be forward-looking strategic partners with strong mutual trust, development partners pursuing equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, friendly partners who understand and learn from each other, and global partners who support and coordinate closely with each other.
Huang Ping, Chinese Ambassador to Harare, said China pumped in more than 0 million into the country in 2013, making it the biggest foreign investor in the nation, so far. The two nations are also members of the increasingly powerful economic bloc known as BRICS – for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“This visit gives a guide to Chinese investors that Zimbabwe is a safe destination for their investments”, he told reporters. “This agreement has provided a vital guidance for the growth of China-Zimbabwe relations”.
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“We agreed that more could, and should be, done to increase our trade and investment figures”. Minister Chinamasa signed two loan agreements for the expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station and TelOne’s fibre optic project with the chairperson of the China Eximbank, Ms Hu Xiaolian.
