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Minister Mpofu

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Government is working on a raft of measures including capacitating the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) to ensure that the 12 landmark agreements signed between Zimbabwe and China to fund vital projects in key economic sectors are implemented, Macro-economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister, Dr Obert Mpofu, has said. In an interview yesterday, Dr Mpofu said Zimbabwe was excited by the visit by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and was geared up to implement the mega deals.

“I have no doubt that these deals will be implemented. I had a meeting with ZIA and asked them about their preparedness and they said they are more than ready to work and make sure that these deals are implemented. “We are considering a raft of measures including popularising and capacitating ZIA so that it meets what is expected of them by investors,” he said.

Minister of Policy Coordination and Promotion of Socio Economic Ventures in the President’s Office, Simon Khaya Moyo, concurred with his counterpart, saying both sides should start working to ensure ordinary citizens realised the results. “There is no doubt we are going to implement the deals which were signed after a great visit by President Xi. All the agreements signed are in support of the country’s economic blueprint Zim-Asset.

“We must start preparing to make sure that they are implemented by both sides. If they remain on the table, they will be of no use to both nations hence we will work with speed to ensure that they are implemented. The message from the two Presidents (President Mugabe and President Xi) was very clear, it is not business as usual,” he said.

He said the parties involved must ensure that ordinary people benefit from the investments adding that corruption would not be tolerated. Economist, Mr Pascal Mandeya, said the key issue was to depoliticise the whole process of implementing the signed deals.

“There is no need to criticise these deals just because you belong to a certain political affiliation. If implemented properly these deals will help the nation.

“The deals also call for a revaluation of our national development plans including programmes like Zim-Asset so that we can accommodate the new realities brought about by the deals. Most importantly, we need to allocate and channel resources to these areas so that we do not hold back progress because the deals require that Zimbabwe meets its obligations,” he said.

Another economist with a local bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Zimbabwe was ready to hit the road running and sooner or later, results will be there for everyone to see. “Zimbabwe is endowed with vast natural resources — minerals, flora and fauna, good climate, rich soils among others. What is lacking is funding and infrastructure to kick-start the processes. With these deals, Zimbabwe’s economy will have a different complexion in the next few years,” he said.

Two of the deals signed are private sector-driven while new agreements, cover key sectors such as infrastructure, telecommunications and energy. Finance and Economic Development Minister, Patrick Chinamasa signed two loan agreements for the expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station and TelOne’s fibre optic project with the chairperson of the China Eximbank, Ms Hu Xiaolian.

On Hwange Power Station expansion, the Zimbabwe Power Company represented by its managing director, Engineer Noah Gwariro and Sinohydro represented by chairman of its parent company, Power China, Mr Yan Zhiyong, signed a cooperation agreement on Hwange 7 and 8 project.

The expansion project at Hwange will see Sinohydro adding two units with a capacity of 600 MW.