Online Reporter
Professor Song Yang
DRIVEN by artificial intelligence (AI), the global digital revolution has unlocked transformative growth potential for all nations.
Yet, alongside these opportunities, a growing digital divide persists — between advanced and developing economies, and within societies across wealth brackets.
A handful of economies hold dominant sway over core AI algorithms, set exclusive technical standards and limit technology sharing with less developed nations, creating new layers of unequal development.
Against this backdrop, the “AI for Good” vision China put forward at the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) and the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance offers a collaborative, actionable framework to advance Zimbabwe’s digital transformation journey.
During the conference, President Xi Jinping called on all nations to jointly build a fair and inclusive global AI governance system.
“All countries should take a people-centred approach and develop AI for the positive and for good. We should ensure that AI is an important driver for shared prosperity and common security,” President Xi stated.
Rather than framing AI as a tool to advance narrow national industrial or geopolitical gains, China advocates for artificial intelligence to function as a shared global public asset — one accessible to all nations and communities, not a resource reserved solely for wealthy populations and advanced economies.
To turn this vision into tangible action, China will offer 5 000 special training slots on artificial intelligence for developing countries over the next five years in order to advance capacity-building in AI worldwide.
At the same time, China will develop international AI application cooperation centres with the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the Community of Latin American, and so on.
This commitment to open, shared technological capacity-building resonates deeply with Africa’s indigenous Ubuntu philosophy.
At the heart of Ubuntu lies the belief that individual prosperity cannot exist without the advancement of the whole community, a value that mirrors China’s stance to treat AI as a shared global public good rather than a scarce privilege hoarded by a few.
Together, Ubuntu’s community-centric spirit and the “AI for Good” framework create a dual cultural and practical foundation for equitable digital growth across the African continent.
Beyond cross-border digital disparities, the “AI for Good” framework also highlights the urgent need to tackle internal digital inequities within individual countries — an issue many developing nations, including Zimbabwe, know well.
Underserved regions grapple with limited digital infrastructure and uneven information access, which can widen opportunity gaps across communities and slow balanced local development.
At its core, “AI for Good” centres on safeguarding marginalised groups — including low-income communities and workers with limited technical skills — by building bridges across digital gaps and aligning AI progress with greater social fairness.
Guided by the vision of “AI for Good”, China has rolled out a host of policy measures to deeply integrate AI advancement with improvements to people’s well-being, enabling low-income groups to share the dividends of AI development.
In August 2025, China issued the “Opinions on Further Implementing the ‘AI Plus’ Initiative, which includes dedicated arrangements for an ‘AI Plus People’s Well-being Campaign’”.
The initiative leverages artificial intelligence in education, healthcare, elderly care and other public service sectors, empowering underdeveloped regions to upgrade their public services through technological tools.
This collaborative, people-first approach holds clear, practical value for addressing Zimbabwe’s core digital priorities: expanding digital infrastructure and nurturing local AI talent, two pillars that will unlock greater intelligent technology adoption across national economic and social development.
Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 2 lays out clear goals for digital transformation in agriculture, healthcare and youth employment, yet local policymakers and practitioners face familiar hurdles: shortages of skilled AI professionals and cost-effective smart technology solutions.
China has already partnered with Zimbabwe to launch collaborative technical programmes to ease these bottlenecks.
Recent training workshops hosted for Zimbabwean journalists and civil servants have equipped local practitioners with basic AI application skills, while agricultural AI diagnostic tools are being tested in rural irrigation zones to mitigate drought risks.
As Zimbabwe charts its own path of digital modernisation, local policymakers can draw valuable, adaptable insights from China’s “AI for Good” philosophy and on-the-ground policy experience, built through years of inclusive digital development practice.
Three actionable directions stand out:
First, continue advancing nationwide digital infrastructure expansion, with targeted investment to boost reliable internet connectivity in rural and peri-urban communities.
The Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) has made meaningful headway through the Wireless Broadband Deployment programme, which aims to bring broadband access to 500 000 users in rural and semi-urban areas — this type of locally led infrastructure expansion creates a solid foundation for all subsequent AI applications.
Second, integrate foundational digital and AI literacy into national education curricula to narrow skill gaps, with heightened investment in learning resources for rural and underserved regions.
Cultivating homegrown digital talent from an early age empowers Zimbabwe to steer its own AI innovation agenda independently.
Third, deepen local integration of AI technology with inclusive human development priorities.
Policymakers can expand AI deployment in healthcare and education to balance uneven access to quality human capital development resources, while scaling AI-assisted labour-intensive services such as smart elderly care and digital community support.
These initiatives will not only lift the standard of public services nationwide but also generate new job opportunities to employ young workers with basic skill sets.
*Song Yang is a Professor of School of Economics and research fellow at the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China.
