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Business Reporter
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Lin Lin has scoffed at critics of Zimbabwe and China’s multimillion-dollar deals signed recently in the Asian country and urged the two countries to put the interests of their people first.
Addressing delegates at a breakfast meeting yesterday organised by The Herald Business on President Mugabe’s State visit to China, Mr Lin said he was baffled by some sections of the Zimbabwean media which suggested that the mega infrastructure deals that were sealed during the visit were ‘pies in the sky’.
He said: “One local newspaper said Zimbabwe-China deals are pies in the sky, I do not know how they reach this conclusion, but to me it means they know Zimbabwe can fly high,” he said to applause.
Mr Lin said the trip to China by a high-powered Government delegation was hugely successful as demonstrated by the commitments made by the Asian country’s top political leadership.
“I should say the commitments by (Chinese) President Xi Jinping are very serious,” he said. “The two countries should work together to put the interests of their people together.”
Mr Lin said China and Zimbabwe should work together to implement the infrastructure deals for the mutual benefit of their economies.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who signed some of the infrastructure deals, concurred saying if the deals were pies in the sky “let us go for these pies in the sky”.
Mr Lin commended the visit to China by President Mugabe and several Government ministers, saying it buttressed the longstanding bilateral and investment relations between the two countries.
During the visit to China, Minister Chinamasa signed several multimillion- dollar deals for financing of infrastructure projects in energy, road and rail, ICTs and agriculture. China’s political leadership committed funding to projects in trunk road dualisation, expansion of power stations (Kariba and Hwange), digitalisation of the national broadcaster ZBC and Transmedia and expansion of TelOne’s fibre optic network and extending coverage of NetOne’s mobile network.
The infrastructure projects, Minister Chinamasa said, would address deficits in the country’s infrastructure backbone, which would drive economic growth in the near term through increased investment and low cost of doing business.
Furthermore, Minister Chinamasa said that China had committed to availing financing for completion of dam and irrigation projects which would open up 20 000 hectares of irrigated land.
Minister Chinamasa also engaged Chinese state and non-state financial institutions for extension of lines of credit to productive sectors of the economy, including finance to the private sector.
Online Reporter