admin
HARARE – Zimbabwe is exploring ways of enabling locally produced goods to be exported to China, a cabinet Minister said on Monday.
Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndhlovu told the media on the sidelines of a signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between his Ministry and the China State Administration for Market Regulation that local companies would use the Shanghai Expo next week to showcase Zimbabwean products.
“We are trying to promote our businesses to also do business in China.
Currently we are not exporting to China. Our relationship is predominantly one way. We hope to use the fair in Shanghai to take some of the exhibits from our own people to the Chinese market,” he said.
Ndhlovu said 15 local companies would be exhibiting products at the Shanghai festival next week.
“We have not tested the Chinese market enough and we are also encouraged by the remarks of the President of China Xi Jinping in the last Forum for China Africa Cooperation meeting where he was encouraging African countries to consider the Chinese market as a viable market.
“We hope this tour will give us more insights in terms of how best to penetrate that market and also appreciate the taste and quality standards that the Chinese are looking forward to if we want to tap that market,” he said.
Economic co-operation between China and Zimbabwe has been growing since independence in 1980 with trade volumes reaching $1.24 billion in 2014.
Zimbabwe, which has close ties with China dating back to the days of the liberation struggle when the Asian country provided military training and logistical support to freedom fighters, has over the years been seeking Beijing’s financial assistance to stabilize and grow its economy which has been battered by more than ten years of sanctions that Western countries imposed as punishment for implementing agrarian reforms.
Early this year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa visited China where he clinched deals to fund infrastructure development and rehabilitation. – New Ziana
Online Reporter