The future is bright and exciting

If there is a country that can relate to our circumstances and aspirations as Zimbabwe and Africa, it is China.

A little more than four decades ago, around 1980, just when we got our hard-won independence from Britain, most Chinese people lived in extreme poverty.

In fact, the World Bank, which is fond of brandishing these sort of statistics, estimates that China’s national poverty rate — measuring the percentage of people living on less than US$1,90 per day — was close to 90 percent.

It was reportedly worse in the countryside, where poverty afflicted about 96 percent of the population.

So desperate and pathetic were the conditions in China that some Westerners called it the “land of famine”.

But in 40 years, this Asian country radically transformed its circumstances and aggressively translated its dreams and aspirations into reality, thanks largely to the wise and penetrative vision and leadership of Deng Xiaoping, who is regarded as the father of the modern Chinese economic miracle.

During his short reign, from 1979 to 1990, his wisdom enabled China to navigate the potential encumbrances of the Marxist and socialist ideology and to bravely embrace the pragmatism needed to thrive in an evolving and dynamic world.

Even when they extended morale, technical and logistical support to our liberation struggle, their magnanimity was not because they were rich — they clearly were not — but it was born out of a deep-seated fraternal bond.

Having opened up to the world and unleashed the potential of its people, China became — still is — the fastest-growing economy in the world, with its annual gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by nearly 10 percent between 1980 and 2018.

The national poverty rate concomitantly fell from 90 percent to zero by 2018.

All this meant that in a period of 40 years, China managed to lift 800 million of its indigent population out of poverty into prosperity.

Incredible!

With a GDP of US$18 trillion, the Asian giant is not only the world’s second-biggest economy, but the world’s sole manufacturing superpower as well.

Its manufacturing production actually exceeds the nine next largest manufacturers.

This is why it is now considered the world’s factory.

But critically, it has been able to achieve these milestones at break-neck speed.

While it took the United States the better part of a century to eclipse the United Kingdom as the world’s largest manufacturer, just before World War I, it took China between 15 and 20 years to overtake America, underlying its seriousness and resolve to develop.

Today, it now boasts more than US$3,3 trillion in reserves, followed by Japan (US$1,2 trillion), Switzerland (US$890 billion) and India at US$655 billion.

And while it is a net food importer, it is the biggest producer of cereals such as maize, wheat and rice, as well as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs and fishery products.

In all, it produces a quarter of the world’s grain and feeds a fifth of the world’s population.

But it has also staked a claim in a successful future, as it is now pivoting on innovation, science and technology.

From 2018 to 2023, China’s research and development expenditure has instructively increased by nearly 70 percent.

It now has the largest number of valid domestic patents in the world.

For instance, last year, it applied for 921 000 patents.

According to the 2023 Global Innovation Index of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, 24 Chinese science and technology clusters made it to the list of top 100 science and technology clusters in the world, the highest of all countries.

This is why it is now leading in industries of the future.

It is, therefore, not surprising that it has become the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs).

Last year, China’s BYD surpassed billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla as the world’s top EV maker by sales.

So, for some of us, it was with an indescribable sense of pride to see President ED touring the BYD (Build Your Dreams) factory at the company’s Shenzhen-based headquarters in Pingshan district.

BYD is even backed by American billionaire Warren Buffet.

For those not in the know, China’s EV and hybrid sales volumes topped 11,42 million last year, which is nearly three-and-a-half times more than America’s, at 3,35 million.

And our teapot-shaped Republic is integral in this new world order.

You see, Zimbabwe, through its bountiful lithium resources, is key in the green energy revolution, with Chinese companies having invested in excess of US$1 billion to secure the resource, led by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (Arcadia Lithium Mine), Sinomine Resource Group (Bikita Lithium Mine), Chengxin Lithium Group (Sabi Star Mine) and Yuhua Group (Kamativi Lithium Mine).

Last week, Sinomine encouragingly made an undertaking to invest US$500 million to establish a lithium smelter plant in Masvingo.

ED is our Deng

As a country, we are indeed blessed.

Deuteronomy 28: 1- 8 says: “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

“All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock — the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

“Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.”

Our history will judge President ED the same way China’s history judged Deng — as an architect of a modern and prosperous Zimbabwe.

Signs abound that Zimbabwe’s economy is already taking off.

After initial setbacks characterised by a global pandemic and weather-related crises, further compounding the effect of illegal sanctions from the US, the European Union and the UK, the country’s economic growth averaged 6,8 percent between 2021 and 2023, becoming the fastest-growing economy in the region.

This year, notwithstanding the deleterious impact of the El Niño-induced drought, growth is expected to come in at 2 percent.

Giant strides have also been made in the quest for household and national food security, with the highlight being the 2,7 million tonnes of grain produced in 2021 — the highest since the independence.

Similarly, the continued record haul of wheat — not least the record-breaking 400 000 tonnes expected this year — underlines ED’s unbendable will to materially transform our agriculture.

Perhaps nothing speaks of the success of the past five years more eloquently than the country’s export performance.

In 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Zimbabwe’s exports grew to US$4,2 billion, US$4,4 billion, US$6 billion, US$6,5 billion and US$7,2 billion, respectively.

And during the first six months of this year, our shipments have already risen by more than US$336 million to US$3,4 billion, from US$3 billion in the same period a year ago.

At this point, Bishop Lazi risks sounding like a broken record if he were to identify the signature infrastructure projects that have been undertaken in the past five years.

Future is exciting

Owing to ED’s diplomatic offensive at the just-ended Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Bishop Lazi is excited about the future in the same way he was excited about the US$1,5 billion steel plant at the time when it was just an idea.

Some might not know that it was the State visit to China in April 2018 — at which relations between Harare and Beijing were elevated to a strategic comprehensive partnership of cooperation, which is the highest level of diplomatic engagement — that many projects were unlocked, not least the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Airport expansion project, Hwange Power Station expansion project, the new Parliament building in Mt Hampden, as well as funding for Kunzvi Dam.

The missing link in Zimbabwe’s current transformational journey, however, is arguably the rehabilitation of the rail network, which makes the meeting with China Rail International Group on Tuesday critical and potentially epoch-defining.

There is already news that the National Railways of Zimbabwe might have tentatively agreed to a US$500 million deal with the company to modernise our rail system.

We desperately need to move our cargo from the road to rail.

Problems at the Forbes Border Post, where 500 trucks cross daily, show that we are slowly becoming victims of our own success in that regard.

There are exciting and endless possibilities that a rehabilitated rail system can do for both passenger and cargo.

In 2012, another company, China Railways Corporation, taught us to dream when it mooted the idea of a high-speed rail link between Harare and Bulawayo.

So, there is no doubt that sooner or later, we might finally begin to see work on our rail system.

The potential for more investments that could help add impetus to the ongoing irrigation revitalisation drive is also exciting, with a memorandum of understanding having been signed between Harare and Beijing last week.

A lot more of the rich pickings from China will be made known in good time.

All this will add tailwinds to ED’s vision.

Zimbabwe’s future is both bright and exciting.

Bishop out!