adminActing Ambassador Zhao Baogang
Last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa presided over the ground breaking ceremony of the construction of a new Parliament Building in Mt Hampden. The venture is being undertaken by a Chinese firm. We publish the full speech by acting China ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Zhao Baogang at the event.
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It is my great pleasure to attend the ground breaking ceremony of the new Zimbabwe Parliament Building aided by the People’s Republic of China.
On behalf of the Chinese, I would like to take this opportunity to express our congratulations to Your Excellency President ED Mnangagwa and the Government and the people of Zimbabwe.
The new Zimbabwean Parliament Building is the largest project in recent years aided by the Government of the People’s Republic of China in a single country in Africa, with a floor space of 33 000 square meters consisting of a six floor office building, two congress halls and other facilities.
Shanghai Construction Group, the general contractor of the project, is a leading construction group in China’s building industry.
For 10 consecutive years, it has been listed as one of the top 30 Chinese construction enterprises in China.
According to the contract, the Parliament Building will be accomplished in 32 months from now.
I strongly believe that upon completion, it will help greatly enhance the working condition of the Zimbabwe Parliament.
The honourable MPs will work harder for the new legislations and make great contributions to the institutional building of this great country.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen; the new Zimbabwe Parliament building represents the arduous efforts of the second republic and its vision for 2030. This is not just a landmark building in this area, it marks the start of construction of the new city of Harare.
Within a few years, a new Harare will take shape. It will attract more visitors and investors into this country.
With the strong leadership of Your Excellency and the hard work of your people, Zimbabwe will regain its past glory, becoming a middle income country, one of the major economies in Africa, an envy by many African countries.
We have strong confidence and support the efforts of the leadership and Government of Zimbabwe.
This is shown by the actions of our enterprises.
Last month, a Chinese company Sunny Yi Teng launched a tile factory with an investment of US$120 million.
The products will be sold on the local market and exported to neighbouring countries.
The day before yesterday (last week Wednesday), Chinese and Australian investors jointly launched the Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe in Goromonzi at a cost of approximately US$165 million.
It will help generate revenue of US$3 billion for Zimbabwe.
Today we have this long-anticipating ceremony, I expect next month we will have a ground breaking ceremony for another project.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen; the new Zimbabwe Parliament Building represents the opportunity brought by the development of China.
Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China will hold celebrations for the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up this year.
Through four decades of reform and opening-up, China has made significant economic progress.
Its GDP has increased 68 times, reaching US$12 trillion in 2017.
China has become a powerhouse for world economic growth.
China has offered a major platform for mutually beneficial co-operation and common development.
Five years ago, President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Until today, China has signed BRI co-operation documents with more than 140 countries and international organizations, including Zimbabwe.
From 2017 to 2020, China will provide assistance worth 60 billion RMB to developing countries on the route.
And China will invest more than US$750 billion in other countries.
Zimbabwe is the beneficiary of the Belt and Road Initiative and this project is one of the fruits.
I expect that Zimbabwe will get more benefits under this co-operation framework.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentleman; the new parliament building represents the deep traditional friendships between the two countries. The traditional friendship can be traced back to the days of the liberation struggle and has been lifted to a new high.
In April this year, President ED Mnangagwa paid a successful State visit to China during which the two sides decided to upgrade the bilateral relations to comprehensive, strategic and co-operative partnerships.
During the visit, to show our goodwill towards President Mnangagwa, with guidance from President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Government decided to make special arrangements to release more than 1,2 billion dollars loan to finance projects such as Robert Mugabe International Airport, Hwange 7 and 8 Power Station expansion and the NetOne Phase three.
A few years ago when China decided to provide grants to help in building this complex, my country had stopped in assisting construction of such office buildings a long time ago.
Why we do this now, it is because Zimbabwe is our partner, our friend, our brother and sister.
Zimbabwe has done everything to ensure that China-Zimbabwe relations set an example for bilateral relations between China and other African countries.
I believe Zimbabwe will continue to enjoy the special treatment from China.
And this will be the best evidence to refute those groundless accusations by some media articles stating that Zimbabwe never benefits from the ties with China.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentleman; just like a drop of water can reflect the radiance of the sun, the new Parliament building shows us how the bilateral relations are and how we can grasp the opportunity for future co-operation.
The just concluded Focac Summit in Beijing has offered us another easily accessible framework on how to deepen relations between China and African countries, including Zimbabwe.
Under this framework, US$60 billion has been put in place to implement the projects in eight categories, including industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, people to people exchange and peace and security co-operation.
Now the Government of Zimbabwe has proposed four projects to be implemented.
Certainly, this is far from enough. We have to work harder and compete with other African countries, they are proposing dozens or hundreds of projects.
I just want to share one word with you and that is opportunity, opportunity, and opportunity. Grasp it and it is yours.
To the Chinese businessmen, we welcome you to come and join us in the development and rejuvenation of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is open for business under the strong leadership of President ED Mnangagwa, the ease of doing business has greatly improved.
To the Zimbabwean officials and businessmen, we welcome you to come aboard the express train of China’s development.
The secrets and resources of development are in China. To promote relations with China is the short-cut route to achieve prosperity.
You have to pay more visits to China and have more meetings with Chinese officials and businessmen.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentleman; please allow me to once again express my congratulations to the commencement of the project.
I thank you all.
Online Reporter