China’s Xi in Zimbabwe to sign power, infrastructure deals

Last year, Mugabe visited China and clinched a number of cooperation deals in critical sectors of the economy.

Of course much of that trade and investment would have happened without Focac. That helped boost African economic growth to an average of about five percent a year in the 21st century.

China’s ratio of global trade is significant and it was unnecessary for countries to go through third party currencies, Chanakira said, the cost of trade will be reduced significantly by direct yuan payments.

That had been – and largely remains – one where China mainly imports vast quantities of African commodities and mainly exports vast quantities of manufactured goods to Africa.

Trade between the 2 countries have topped more than a billion a year ago.

Prosper Chitambara, an economist with Labour and Economic Research Institute of Zimbabwe, says China is benefitting more from the relationship with Zimbabwe than Harare.

Mutual cooperation has entered a new era, Wang said, calling on the two sides to combine China’s advantages in development experience and production with those of Africa in natural and human resources. The Mali attack showed that “China’s vast business interests in Africa face an uncertain future if security issues are not tackled”, said Mr Shu Yunguo, director of the Center for African Studies at Shanghai Normal University. But more needed to be done.

“This is an historic event as it is the first time the summit has been held on African soil, and it represents an important platform for high-level dialogue and cooperation”.

“We share the same conviction that only a fair, just and non-prescriptive world order, based on the principles of the charter of the United Nations, can deliver the development we all need”.

Wang said China’s shift in focus would address Africa’s two most urgent tasks, accelerating industrialisation and agricultural modernisation.

The lack of energy and communication infrastructure is a bottleneck in Zimbabwe’s economic development. We are building Hwange 7 and 8.

Zimbabwean state media said Chinese President Xi Jinping deserved a “hero’s welcome” when he jetted into the country on a state visit on Tuesday, but the main opposition dismissed the visit as a mere public relations exercise.

Chinese ambassador to Harare Huang Ping said that China is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor, pumping in $600 million in 2013. Through it, Africa has persuaded China – traditionally very non-interventionist – to increase its contribution to African peacekeeping efforts.

Xi will propose “new thoughts, new policies and new ideas” for developing ties with Africa, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters Thursday. “We have had a lot of Chinese involvement before, but little improvement has happened”.

Besides urban infrastructure, China has also been offering help in areas such as education, health and stability.

China built Zimbabwe’s National Sports Stadium in the 1980s, as well as rural hospitals and the country’s biggest shopping mall, and also provided loans for water schemes and power stations.