Online Reporter
Mukudzei Chingwere in Beijing, China
CHINA’S vast investment potential and cutting-edge industrial expertise make it an ideal partner for Zimbabwe’s resource-driven industrialisation and economic transformation, Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga has said.
VP Chiwenga said this in Beijing yesterday on arrival for a high-level investment and trade mission aimed at consolidating Zimbabwe’s recent economic gains, particularly through manufacturing, beneficiation and industrialisation.
He said China’s experience and knowledge, combined with Zimbabwe’s abundant natural resources, presented opportunities for mutually beneficial economic cooperation between the two countries.
“Our economy can only grow and our GDP can accelerate when we concentrate on beneficiation, value addition, manufacturing and industrialisation,” said VP Chiwenga.
“We have the resources and China has the experience, it has the knowledge, and combined with this, it will be a win-win situation, and that is the main thrust of this visit to the People’s Republic of China.”
The VP’s visit comes as the Government intensifies efforts to attract investment, expand manufacturing and promote value addition as part of the country’s broader industrialisation drive.
During the visit, VP Chiwenga is scheduled to address the Global Trade in Services Summit in Beijing and the Xiong’an Digital Trade Innovation and Development Conference, where Zimbabwe will showcase its investment opportunities to Chinese and international businesses.
He will also officiate at the Zimbabwe-China Business Forum in Hangzhou, where Zimbabwe is expected to engage Chinese companies on investment opportunities in mining, mineral processing, agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing and other strategic sectors. A key component of the mission will be engagements with Chinese companies already operating in Zimbabwe, as well as those with potential to invest in the country.
VP Chiwenga is expected to undertake site visits to Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Holding Group, two major Chinese investors with significant operations in Zimbabwe, as well as other leading Chinese enterprises.
The engagements are expected to provide opportunities for Zimbabwe to learn from China’s industrial processes and explore further investment, technology transfer and partnerships that can support domestic processing of minerals and agricultural commodities.
“We will be seeing how trade should be done now, how it should be done tomorrow, going forward. The world has become one village, and therefore trade between nations, between continents, is going to be as smooth as is possible,” said VP Chiwenga.
“At the fair, services which are going to be exhibited include goods, pharmaceuticals, health products, financial transactions, and this is what grows the economy, not only of one country or one continent, but the global economy.
“This is why we are coming here. But besides that, in that exhibition, we are going to be meeting with the different partners that we are working with, both from the government side and from the private sector and from the partners that are going to help us grow our economy,” said VP Chiwenga.
Government has identified beneficiation and value addition as key pillars of Zimbabwe’s development trajectory, particularly as the country seeks to move away from exporting raw commodities towards producing higher-value finished and semi-finished products.
Greater domestic processing is expected to retain more value from Zimbabwe’s natural resources, create employment, develop local supply chains, increase export earnings and strengthen the manufacturing sector.
China’s rapid industrialisation and extensive manufacturing capacity therefore provide Zimbabwe with opportunities to attract investment, access technology and draw lessons that can help establish and expand domestic processing industries.
The visit also builds on the longstanding comprehensive strategic partnership between Zimbabwe and China, which has seen Chinese companies investing in mining, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and other sectors.
VP Chiwenga, who is accompanied by his wife, Dr Miniyothabo Chiwenga, was received on arrival in Beijing by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China, Abigail Shoniwa, and Deputy Director-General at China’s Ministry of Commerce, Zhao Hei.
