Online Reporter
Mukudzei Chingwere
Senior Reporter
CHINA has praised Zimbabwe’s attractive business environment that is transparent, fair and predictable for investors.
Chinese Ambassador Zhou Ding made these remarks yesterday after paying a courtesy call on Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga at his offices in Harare.
The meeting took note that Chinese investment in Zimbabwe has surpassed US$4,4 billion, supporting over one million jobs locally.
Zimbabwe, meanwhile, reaffirmed that investments across sectors should be tailored to benefit ordinary people, reflecting the Government’s push for fair business practices and accountable delivery of value from investors.
The meeting comes at a time when Zimbabwe is working to improve the environment for both domestic and foreign investors.
At the same time, Zimbabwe’s emphasis on investments benefiting ordinary people reflects a broader expectation across the country that foreign capital should translate into jobs, productivity and household-level improvements, rather than remaining limited to corporate profits alone.
“I am deeply honoured to have paid a visit to Honourable Vice President Chiwenga. We had a wonderful discussion on how to improve our bilateral relations, we covered a wide range of areas,” said Ambassador Zhou.
“We talked about trade and economic relations. We are very happy that in the past years we have achieved a record high of US$4,4 billion; we are also happy that the Chinese investment here in Zimbabwe is growing steadily, covering areas from steel, manufacturing, cement, fertiliser, to solar hydropower”.
Chinese investments, he said, had sustained more than one million jobs in Zimbabwe and Beijing was very proud of joint achievements by the two countries.
“Zimbabwe is a land of hope, a land of promise and we hope that Zimbabwe will continue to maintain this attractiveness in terms of its business environment,” said Ambassador Zhou.
He said China is willing to work with Zimbabwe to advance the country’s technology and energy agenda, including through the use of artificial intelligence.
The two countries are expected to discuss practical ways of improving AI deployment and building capacity for the technology’s application across priority sectors.
China also indicated interest in collaborating with Zimbabwe on new energy initiatives, outlining a shared intention to strengthen cooperation in areas that can support economic development, innovation and long-term sustainable growth.
“In future, we talked about how to strengthen our relations economically, culturally, educationally, and in the new energy area. We also talked about how to utilise AI technology,” said Ambassador Zhou.
“We talked about how to enhance Zimbabwe’s digital infrastructure. Those are the areas we will focus on and also, we talked about how to attract more business delegations, and how to maximise Zimbabwe’s business environment.”
