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VP Mnangagwa

From Hatred Zenenga in QINGDAO, China
Zimbabwe will host a high-level Zimbabwe-China investment conference before the end of this year as the two countries continue implementing mega economic deals signed by President Mugabe when he visited the Asian economic giant last year.

Addressing an investment seminar attended by over 150 business people and investors here yesterday, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the exact dates of the conference would be announced soon.

“This international conference will aim at attracting more Chinese investors to Zimbabwe,” he said. “It will also aim at addressing any problems retarding growth and trade between the two countries.”

VP Mnangagwa said that the conference would also recommend to policy makers necessary improvements in order to take trade and investment relations to greater heights.

He outlined the numerous opportunities in many sectors in Zimbabwe that included energy, mining exploration, road and railway network, tourism and manufacturing.

VP Mnangagwa told delegates that as the person assigned by President Mugabe to lead Zimbabwe’s economic recovery, he was driving Cabinet ministers “military style” as he chaired several inter-ministerial committees geared towards turning around the economy.

“Some 52 years ago, I came here in China as a student to train in military, liberation ideology and ask for material to fight colonialists,” he said. “But today I have come to seek business and investment partnerships.”

Companies represented at the seminar which was organised by the Qingdao Municipal Government included Hisense Group, China Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of China, Shandong Taikai Power Engineering Company, China Noferrous Metal Geology and Mining Company and China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Government and the Qingdao Municipal Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding focusing on Special Economic Zones and Industrial Parks. VP Mnangagwa witnessed the signing ceremony at which Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha represented Zimbabwe.

Earlier in the day, VP Mnangagwa toured the Qingdao high tech zone and was also shown the Qingdao Bridge, the world’s longest bridge, which is 35 kilometres long.

VP Mnangagwa is expected to wind off his visit to China today, his first official visit since his appointment as Vice President in December 2014.