Online Reporter
Mukudzei Chingwere in BEIJING, China
Zimbabwe’s investment and business engagements in China received high-level political impetus this afternoon after Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga met Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang here, ahead of an intensive programme of engagements with investors and businesses beginning tomorrow.
The meeting comes as VP Chiwenga leads Zimbabwe’s participation at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), whose official opening he attended this morning.
Vice Premier Ding is also a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, making his engagement with VP Chiwenga critical as Zimbabwe seeks to translate the strong political relations between Harare and Beijing into deeper economic cooperation.
The meeting is expected to provide high-level political backing to VP Chiwenga’s engagements with Chinese investors and businesses, which are scheduled to intensify from tomorrow.
During his stay in China, the Vice President is expected to meet investors, business executives and tour companies as Zimbabwe steps up efforts to attract capital, technology and expertise into key sectors of the economy.
His business programme will also take him to a number of districts in China, where he is expected to engage companies and explore opportunities for investment partnerships with Zimbabwe.
“We had a very good meeting with the Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China, who is also a member of the State Council, and I fully explained to him that I was here at the behest of our President, Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and that we are coming to strengthen our friendship,” said VP Chiwenga after the meeting.
“As you know that our friendship has now been raised to the ironclad level and so we discussed quite a number of issues for us to look into, and the most important issues were on the investments, on value addition, on beneficiation, manufacturing and industrialisation.”
The engagement with Vice Premier Ding therefore sets the political tone for the Vice President’s economic diplomacy, signalling Beijing’s high-level attention to Zimbabwe’s efforts to deepen bilateral economic cooperation.
Zimbabwe and China enjoy longstanding political and economic relations, with the latest engagements increasingly focused on leveraging those ties to generate investment, trade, tourism and other tangible economic benefits.
