Online Reporter
HARARE. — The increasing presence of Chinese companies is boosting Zimbabwe’s job market, a Zimbabwean economic analyst said recently.
Dereck Goto, an economic analyst and political commentator based in Harare, told Xinhua that the ever-increasing employment opportunities brought by Chinese firms, particularly in the mining sector, also mirror a wider trend of economic engagement between China and Africa.
In recent years, Zimbabwe has seen a growing number of Chinese companies that continuously place job advertisements in local media for key positions, indicating their booming interest in local talent.
“In the short term, the rise in job advertisements represents the setup phase. These firms are hiring essential technical and operational staff to establish a local presence and address immediate project needs,” Goto said.
“Looking ahead, Chinese companies have the potential to become employers of choice,” he said, while calling for them to invest more in localisation, skills transfer and long-term talent development.
In a separate interview, Executive Director of the Southern African Research and Documentation Center Munetsi Madakufamba said that the growth in the number of Chinese companies seeking local professionals was a combination of factors, including the growing Chinese presence in the country and a response to local employment demands.
“We do need to ensure Zimbabweans have the requisite skills to fully benefit from those opportunities; we need a serious upgrading of local skills to maximize the potential,” Madakufamba said.
Meawnile, The small-scale power generation projects built by Chinese companies in Zimbabwe are boosting the country’s electricity supply, a local official has said.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion last week on strengthening Zimbabwe-China business cooperation in Harare, the country’s capital, Benson Munyaradzi, chief director of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Energy and Power Development, said that an increasing number of Chinese investors are setting up their power plants in the country.
He said that funding from the Chinese investors has enabled Zimbabwe to increase its power generation capacity by approximately 900 megawatts in recent years.
“We are still in a deficit, and we believe there are opportunities for more Chinese investors to invest in the power sector,” Munyaradzi said, adding that Zimbabwe welcomed investors to come in as independent power producers.
Over the years, Zimbabwe has been experiencing a power deficit due to aging infrastructure, inadequate investments, climate change and the exponential growth in demand for electricity. – Xinhua
