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Herald Reporter
China and Zimbabwe last week held high level talks on progress made so far in the implementation of mega projects signed during a visit to Beijing by President Mugabe in August last year.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi chaired the meeting on behalf of Government while China was represented by its Vice Minister of Commerce Mr Zhang Xiangche.
During the meeting, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, outlined several projects that had reached maturity and were waiting for implementation.
Several other Cabinet ministers attended the meeting before touring the new Parliament site in Mt Hampden and the High Performance Computing Centre at the University of Zimbabwe.
Mr Zhang said China was ready to assist Zimbabwe economically.
“China has some advantages in terms of technology, finance and we want to help Zimbabwe in infrastructure development, in agriculture as well as running the industry.
“We hope that our co-operation will further promote social and economic development in Zimbabwe. Our relations have stood the test of time and we support each other in our development.
“In the past few years China and Zimbabwe developed trade and economic relations to achieve a number of infrastructural projects,” said Mr Zhang.
Minister Mumbengegwi said Harare appreciated China’s support dating back to the days of the liberation struggle.
“We appreciate the willingness of the people’s Republic of China to share with us experiences in economic development through the National Development and Reform Commission of China,” said Minister Mumbengegwi.
“His Excellency the President Cde Mugabe made an extremely successful State visit to China in August 2014. During the visit, President Mugabe and President Xi Jinping agreed on the acceleration of co-operation between Zimbabwe and China, focusing particularly on economic, trade and investment issues.
“The two leaders witnessed the signing of many agreements whose sole aim was to broaden and deepen that cooperation.”
Minister Mumbengegwi said a follow-up visit to China was made by Vice President Mnangagwa to pursue the implementation of agreed projects and programmes.
When the delegation visited the High Performance Computing Centre, Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Ray Ndhlukula, said the establishment of the centre was a result of strong co-operation between Zimbabwe and China.
He said following the setting up of the HPC, focus was now on the establishment of the National Information Data Centre whose first phase would cost $6 million.
“Some of the benefits of the NIDC are security of information — establishing a centralised NIDC and HPC in Zimbabwe is to ensure security of our information and realise goals of e-Government programme for Zimbabwe,” he said.
“Connectivity and transactional improvement, will allow efficient and easy access to Government data and information.”
Dr Ndhlukula said the NIDC would also result in reduction of Government’s budget for acquiring and maintaining multiple ICT equipment and infrastructure.
Projects agreed between Zimbabwe and China cut across all key economic enablers such as energy, infrastructure development and agriculture among others.
Online Reporter