Big thermal power deal crowns rare trip by China’s Xi to Zimbabwe

Xi arrived in Harare Tuesday mid-morning to a 21 gun salute and pomp and fanfare, as Zimbabweans and Chinese lined up the streets to greet Zimbabwe’s most high profile visitor in at least 20 years.

“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.

Some immigration signs at Zimbabwe’s main global airport are in Chinese, a sign of China’s deep economic inroads in Africa, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit this week.

Speaking at the business forum yesterday, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, said Zimbabwe and China have good economic and political relations and that would be concretised through solid investments in various sectors of the economy.

It also said that another agreement was signed to fund infrastructure and industrial development projects in South Africa and Africa.

Although there have been mixed reactions over Xi’s visit, many people have expressed hope that the Chinese leader would pump in new investments and help the country’s ailing economy.

“The Chinese president will make a difference in our trade relations with China in a manner that is sustainable, in a manner that will attract many investors into Zimbabwe”, the minister told Xinhua.

In an interview with Chinese and local reporters in Harare, Mugabe said the visit by Xi was a very important event that marked a great achievement by both Zimbabwe and China in their quest to further cement ties. Africa has become China’s second-biggest overseas market for contracted engineering services, Qian said.

“Finance is challenging for companies, including Chinese companies in Zimbabwe”.

Zimbabweans are expecting to see the mega deals signed by Harare and China trickle down to the people in the grassroots and eventually change their lives for the better.

“The Chinese investors are becoming quite strong in terms of their investments in Zimbabwe”.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has strongly pursued a “Look East” policy since the West isolated him over his controversial land reform programme.

In July, Zimbabwe’s French-backed PER Lusulu Power signed an agreement with China State Construction Engineering Corp Ltd to build a $1.1 billion coal power station starting in April 2016, with the 600MW plant being the first phase of a 2 000 MW project. One South African cabinet minister said that bilateral deals were expected to be agreed during Wednesday’s meeting between Xi and Zuma, and the government issued a statement saying that the trade imbalance was one of the issues to be discussed.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner, having developed a mutual, sound and vibrant partnership with trade volume between them increasing exponentially over the past decade.