Visiting Chinese delegation explores joint venture opportunities in Zimbabwe

HARARE — Zimbabwe and China's Zhejiang province on Friday signed two memorandum as the two countries push for more cooperation and fostering of joint ventures in sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, construction, energy, health and finance.

Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province Miriam Chikukwa signed a Friendship Memorandum of Understanding with the Vice Chairman of Standing Committee of Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress Wang Huizhong.

Secretary for Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Desire Sibanda signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Chairperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (Zhejiang) Wu Guiying, under which the Chinese will explore investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.

Wang is leading a high-powered delegation with more than 20 people from Zhejiang province which is exploring business opportunities with both the public and private sectors.

The delegation joined Zimbabwean government officials and the private sector for the Zimbabwe-China Zhejiang Investment Conference where they engaged with a view to establishing long term cooperation agreements.

"We expect them to invest in our economic blueprint Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation priority areas in our Special Economic Zones (SEZs)," Sibanda told Xinhua after the signing ceremony.

He told the delegation that the government had come up with highly competitive SEZs incentives such as flexible labor laws, tax free holidays, duty free importation of essential raw materials which are not locally available and relaxed immigration rules for investors.

Wu said Zimbabwe and China were highly complementary of each other and announced plans to establish an office in Harare to promote cooperation between the two.

"As long as we join hands with each other, I believe that our symposium will bring more opportunities," she said.

Chikukwa said that the memorandum she signed sought to foster greater friendship between the two provinces and boost cooperation in various sectors of the economy.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Huang Ping said he had once asked investors in Zhejiang why they were not investing in Zimbabwe and they had told him that they did not know much about the country.

"They always got negative information on Zimbabwe from the internet," he said, adding that it was time for China and Zimbabwe to transform their comparative advantages into fruitful cooperation.