Mugabe welcomes China’s Xi in rare visit

The BBC’s Brian Hungwe in the capital, Harare, says President Mugabe was at the airport to welcome the Chinese leader, who received a 21-gun salute before inspecting a guard of honour.

Xi and Mugabe watched their government ministers sign 10 agreements, including on the Hwange deal and the construction of a new parliament building and a pharmaceutical warehouse.

Amid such hospitality, Xi arrived on Tuesday for his first state visit to Zimbabwe, before going next to Johannesburg, South Africa, for an annual forum boosting China’s co-operation with Africa.

China is major investor in Zimbabwe, helping to keep its economy afloat.

Some African countries may seek to renegotiate repayment of existing debts to China as a way of helping their economies hit by lower crude and commodity prices, but will not turn down offers of new loans by the Asian giant at a summit this week.

China Africa Sunlight Energy, a 50/50 joint venture between Zimbabwe’s Old Stone Investments and Shandong Taishan Sunlight of China, plans to spend US$2,1 billion in the next five years on power generation, coal mining and methane bed gas extraction in Matabeleland North. Zimbabwe was unlikely to get a cent out of it. Chinese grants to Zimbabwe over the past three years totaled 100 million USA dollars.

South Africa’s presidency said in a statement that the 26 agreements had taken bilateral cooperation between the two countries to a higher level.

Japhet Moyo, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, dismissed Xi’s visit as merely a ‘show.’ He claims Zimbabweans have not benefitted from the economic relations between the two countries.

Speaking at a Zimbabwe-China investment conference Tuesday, Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said Zimbabwe had a diversified manufacturing base that offered huge investment opportunities for Chinese investors.

The summit, which will gather leaders from across Africa, comes amid growing African concern over the impact of the Chinese economic slowdown.

“It’s very urgent for the developing countries to improve their worldwide communication capability to create a more objective, impartial and balanced global public opinion environment”, said Jiang.

“We are convinced that the upcoming summit will promote South-South cooperation, encourage North-South dialogue, and help move the worldwide governance system towards greater equity and fairness”, Xi said.

South Africa, after all, is China’s biggest trade partner in Africa.

But Chinese investment in Africa fell by more than 40 percent in the first half of 2015 due to its reduced demand for commodities such as oil, iron ore and copper.

Chinese and South African officials called for more enhanced media cooperation between China and Africa to have a bigger voice in the world and create “win-win” development for both sides.