admin
My Turn Tichaona Zindoga
President Mnangagwa is in the People’s Republic of China on a long-awaited tour that is so fraught with significance on different levels.
It’s President Mnangagwa’s first State visit outside Africa since he took power in November last year.
The President is continuing with a long romance that has had its moments of pleasure and pain.
Good thing it has endured.
President Mnangagwa could be the man to consummate it.
The last time he was here, in 2015, he promised a lot: to improve and reform and be a good partner.
Fate has it that – just as it was widely expected – he would one day become leader of Zimbabwe and have the chance to make good on his word.
The Chinese have been waiting.
It is a little public secret that Zimbabwe has over the years – under the leadership of former President Mugabe – come short, and gravely so.
The Chinese held on.
They held on to the best of memories and the hope for the best of Zimbabwe – which was yet to come.
This is the promise that the new Government and leadership of President Mnangagwa has to keep.
He has to prove much more: that he is honest, that he is not corrupted, that he is agile and lively, that he has the stamina.
That he means business.
It’s a challenge.
One can imagine how it will be like in Beijing during the tour: marathon meetings and countless negotiations with Chinese politicians and technocrats that have a strong work ethic and would push you to the limit.
To break you, even!
President Mnangagwa knows this sort of thing.
He has been cultivating a strong work ethic back home and has himself been working flat out and logging hours at the office.
That gives Zimbabwe lots of hope.
He is not one to sleep on the job!
The Chinese partners would also want that.
The timing is important: Zimbabwe is in transition and staring an election.
It is an election that President Mnangagwa is likely to win, and largely expected to do so.
This means that when President Mnangagwa is sworn in after the elections to be held likely in July, Zimbabwe will have an important guest in the name of President Xi Jinping to congratulate him and also tie in the final vows of Zimbabwe and Chinese affair. Forever.
There is nothing to suggest that things can go horribly wrong in the next 90 to 120 days.
Catching up
That Zimbabwe and China have not made the best of their traditional and time-honoured romance has been a matter of discussion.
It has been pointed out that Zimbabwe has even lost out to newer partners who have been showered with gifts by the Chinese.
Or let’s say bigger gifts, with respect to investments that have come Zimbabwe’s way in comparison to other countries.
Yet in our moments of honesty, we know we failed our Chinese partner through tardiness, dereliction of duty, corruption and myopia.
It is time to put these things right – and everyone knows.
The world is simply mesmerised by the Chinese story of growth and rising global leadership.
China has been smashing records and setting precedents in Africa and it is promising more.
It is becoming a cliché to talk about vast Chinese investments in Africa, something that has been the subject of a multi-faceted economic, political, social and academic inquiry over the years.
Zimbabwe could be part of the beautiful Chinese story and it is only standing at the threshold. It has to be taken within the bosom of the Chinese – and the signature and symbolic setting is China’s “Road and Belt” initiative that incorporates 60 countries in a global thrust of cooperation and rebuilding.
Some have called it China’s answer to the US’ Marshall Plan.
Post-2008 global financial crisis, China has a plan for the world.
It’s focus on Africa is one of the anchors of re-imagining the world.
A 2017 Ernst & Young’s report – one of many of such – pointed out that China had invested in 293 FDI projects in Africa since 2005, totalling an investment outlay of $66,4 billion and creating 130 750 jobs (africanews.com, May 4, 2017).
Ernst & Young also noted that Chinese FDI into Africa was well diversified across various sectors, covering resource-oriented ones as well as services and manufacturing.
A juicy part of the report indicates that in 2016, jobs created from Chinese FDI projects hit an all-time high of more than double the number in 2015 and above three times the number of jobs created by the next biggest investor, the United States.
“Besides trade and FDI, Chinese companies and State-related entities have financed and built many infrastructure projects across the continent, including ports, roads, railways, dams, telecom networks, power stations and airports,” cites the report.
On the other hand, the Forbes wealth magazine puts it into context noting that in December 2015, President Xi Jinping ushered in a new era of “real win-win cooperation” between China and Africa.
This strategy aims to create mutual prosperity, allowing investors to “do good while doing right.”
“China has backed this proposal up with a commitment of $60 billion of new investment in major capital projects, which are tied to developing local economic capacity” (March 14, 2017).
Party time
Much has been written about Chinese influence in Africa. Still more, on what lessons can be drawn from the Asian giant.
Zimbabwe has fared poorly despite its huge potential.
We know what ailed us in the previous administration of former President Mugabe.
His successor knows.
What is needed now is to commit to bringing the country on course and arrest the decline that the country experienced, leading to the loss of 20 years’ development, according to President Mnangagwa.
China itself provides an example of how to rise from some international backwater to become a global giant.
Chinese rise is attributable to many things from natural to human resources, but the critical component was its ability to reform and transform and open up to the world, yet maintaining a unique outlook.
China is an example worth noting. President Mnangagwa knows what is to be done.
Online Reporter