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Kudzanai Sharara in Beijing, China
The Zimbabwe-China Business Forum that ended yesterday in Beijing, China, was a resounding success with participating firms managing to establish business leads and partnerships with their Chinese counterparts, ZimTrade chief executive officer Allan Majuru said.
The forum, the brainchild of national trade development and promotion body, ZimTrade, is one of the first few business forums between China and another country post-Covid-19.
Its objectives included facilitating a platform for networking and establishing partnerships and improving the visibility of Zimbabwean products in the Chinese market in line with the economic diplomacy championed by President Mnangagwa whose mantra has always been “Zimbabwe is open for business”.
“I think in terms of the initial objectives and what expectations we had both as a country and as a business we surpassed those expectations.
“If you look before Covid-19, not much activity was happening between China and Zimbabwe in terms of business forums, but from what I was made to understand Zimbabwe is one of the first few countries that has managed to come to China and hold a business forum post-Covid-19 and that alone shows the hunger that is there in us as countries to do business,” Mr Majuru said.
Two of the major highlights of the business forum were business-to-business engagements as well as factory visits.
On Wednesday, a group of Zimbabwean delegates toured Great Walls Motors, which makes the Haval SUV brand, also sold in Zimbabwe, who showed keen interest in exploring further investment opportunities in this country.
Allen Liu, an industrial investment director with Svolt Energy Technology, a battery maker and subsidiary of Great Walls Holdings, said officials from the company will this year visit Zimbabwe for further engagements.
Kevin Lee, the sales manager of Southern African Market for Great Walls Motors International, said the company will soon introduce more vehicle brands, Tank and Ora, into the Zimbabwe market where it currently has two models selling.
During the meeting, Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) chief investment officer Silibaziso Chizwina called for further engagement with the view of having both GWM International and SVOLT Energy Technology establishing bases in Zimbabwe.
Such engagements were in line with the business forum’s objectives.
“I think in terms of imports, one good thing is that most companies have managed to make inroads in terms of sourcing quality raw materials and also quality machinery for them to enhance their competitiveness, which is quite key,” said Mr Majuru.
“And also some companies in the honey sector and horticulture sector have managed to also clinch deals and establish leads to enhance trade between our two countries.”
Mr Majuru said trade and exports were a contact “sport” which needs continuous engagement with partners and markets for leads to come to fruition.
Jacqueline Gowe, a director at Sweet Maungwe Honey, visited Multi-Sweet Group, a company in the apiculture equipment business, honey bee breeding, processing, and packing. She described the visit as an “awesome experience”.
Freeman Gutsa, the deputy director, Strategic Policy Planning and Business Development in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Development visited several manufacturers of agriculture equipment in the Shandong Province.
The farm mechanisation gap in the country is huge with 11 000 functional tractor units versus a national requirement of 40 000, according to Gutsa.
“I have visited factories including an agriculture equipment company called Lansu, doing a range of tractor equipment.
“My interest is equipment that is compatible with our small-scale farmers, especially the two-wheel tractors and agricultural processing and harvesting bits.
“Hope is that we will be able to model a steady supply of such critical bits of equipment with a view of ensuring the establishment of a local assembly plant for such compatible equipment,” Mr Gutsa said.
Ju Yu, a processed foods distributor in China, said there was huge potential to grow business between Zimbabwe and China.
“We are looking for more support from Zimbabwe’s side to make our business grow faster and benefit both countries.
“We are very interested in all the agricultural products from Zimbabwe such as citrus, blueberries, and avocados, we are very interested in that and we are seeking more importers from the Chinese side to contact Zimbabwean companies and see that we can have a bigger room for business support, “she said.
The business forum comes as China has become Zimbabwe’s biggest source of FDI as reported by this publication this week.
In terms of trade, the latest figures from ZimStat show that exports to China for the month of April 2023 were at US$117,7 million, representing 21,2 percent of total exports, the highest in 12 months.
Before that, the highest were May 2022 exports at US$67, 9 million, accounting for 13,2 percent of total exports for that month.
China was Zimbabwe’s third-largest export destination for the period under review.
On the import side, China was number two in April 2023 with imports accounting for US$153, 8 million or 22 percent of the month’s total import bill. This is the highest in 12 months as well.
Apart from trade and investment-related engagements, the Zimbabwe delegation also had tourism players looking at growing China as a source market.
Douglas Mavhembu, the acting director of international tourism in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, described the business forum as well organised with attendance quite good.
“I think we managed to meet quality business people from China, especially in the area of tourism, I think we had very good discussions with potential investors.
Online Reporter