Beijing investments in Zim hailed

America are soliciting Africans to snub the Asian giant’s Foreign Direct Investments on the continent.
In an interview after his return from China where he attended the World Economic Forum, the DPM said European and American delegates to the meeting tried to persuade African representatives to condemn Beijing’s investments in the continent.

“We refused to be used by Europeans and Americans to attack the Chinese on their behalf. The advent of Chinese investment in Africa is a great positive and that should be said loud and clearly to the West,” DPM Mutambara said.
He said it was ironic that the West wanted Africa to snub China yet Europe and America were looking at the Asian giant for economic salvation.

“The coming in of China to Africa and the involvement of the Chinese on the continent is a major positive development. The broader the sources of Foreign Direct Investment in Africa the better. It gives Africans choices and bargaining power,” DPM Mutambara said.

He added: “What is critical is for Africans and African governments to negotiate fairer and better deals in a win-win framework where the Chinese benefit and we benefit.”
The DPM said the quality and nature of deals signed with the Chinese could always be negotiated.

“That can be fixed by Africans negotiating better. In Zimbabwe, for example, they must process minerals and help add value to products thereby creating jobs.
“We can require that they employ Zimbabweans as opposed to bringing their nationals where we have the skills.
“We can insist that they bank with our local banks so that money goes into circulation in our country,” he said.

DPM Mutambara said Zimbabwe and Africa could also insist on technology and skills transfer and the observance of labour laws by Chinese investors.
“There is nothing inherently evil about Chinese investments but the Chinese must come into Africa on our terms.

“They are no longer coming to us as comrades but as shrewd business people. We must engage them as business players,” he said.
DPM Mutambara observed that the aggressive investments by the Chinese in Africa had caught Europe and America in a deep slumber.

“The Americans and Europeans are worried that they are getting out-competed by the Chinese. They are on the decline and China is on the rise.
“Europeans and Americans are broke and they cannot compete with China. Clearly, the Chinese economy is the future,” he said.

On President Mugabe’s Look East Policy, DPM Mutambara said: “It is common cause that the East is the future but we must understand what the people in the East are doing. It is more than looking east. It is to understand models of the East.”

President Mugabe’s Look East Policy has immensely benefited the country as evidenced by the rise in Chinese investments in the country through joint ventures with local companies.
China is now the seconded largest economy after the US and is sitting on US$3 trillion in reserves.