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Minister Mandiwanzira

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
China is keen to revamp Zimbabwe’s information communication technology and telecommunications sector to ensure that everyone has access to Internet, Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Huang Ping has said.

Speaking after paying a courtesy call on Information Communication Technology and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira, Ambassador Huang said he wants to see Zimbabwe benefit from its cooperation with China.

“We need to strengthen cooperation in the telecommunications and the internet sector. President Mugabe had a very nice meeting with Chinese President (Xi Jinping) in January. That meeting was quite fruitful, pointing the direction of our cooperation,” he said.

“In the future one of the areas of cooperation is telecommunications. In China we have a saying which goes,‘If you want to be rich build a road’. I think telecommunications is a road connecting people not only in this country but to people in other countries all over the world.”

He said China would like to strengthen this relationship by extending cooperation in all fields relating to telecommunications.

Ambassador Huang said the two countries have already achieved a lot together but he wants all Zimbabweans to have access to Internet.

“We want this country to benefit from our cooperation. All our Chinese companies are the top ones in the world. You can trust them. They will further prove their capability by continuing pending projects. Let us work together to enhance relationship which has been enjoyed for so many years dating back to the liberation struggle,” he said.

Minister Mandiwanzira said Zimbabwe was grateful for China’s continued support in the ICT and telecommunications sector.

“You know that China is a global leader in this specific field and we are working with various companies in China and we have received a lot of great support from China. As you are aware China is a leader in the manufacture of hardware and use of these various technologies that are in the ICT,” he said.

“There has been significant cooperation for many years between Zimbabwe and China in the telecommunications sector and Chinese financial institutions as well as ICT infrastructure companies have been very active in this market working with Government-owned telecommunications companies as well as private sector companies.”

He said Zimbabwe was grateful to China for the support it extended to Government-owned telecommunication companies.

He said of note were two major projects which are being undertaken with support from China Exim Bank.

“TelOne is implementing a $98 million facility project which was granted to Zimbabwe and is being implemented by Huawei and it will see the expansion of services being offered by TelOne, more importantly the deployment of fixed broadband.

“NetOne is just concluding the second phase of its mobile broadband project which has been funded to the tune of $280 million by China Exim Bank and being implemented by Huawei,” he said.