China opening up strategy will help develop Africa

Chinese President, Xi Jinping, while addressing the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on Oct 16, noted that the Asian giant was pursuing a more pro-active strategy of opening up and building a globally oriented of high-standard free trade areas and accelerated the development of pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port.

This strategy will see the country entering into various trade agreements with countries across the globe, positioning the country as the economic giant of the world while at the same time helping grow the economies of the countries in which it invests.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which seeks to improve cooperation on a transcontinental scale, is one of the major initiative that has been widely accepted by nations across the globe with many countries now looking at ways to maximise the benefits.

President Xi noted that BRI, as a collective endeavor, has been welcomed by the international community ‘both as a public good and a cooperation platform’.

More than 140 countries are now trading partners with China, making the Asian country the leader in total volume of trade in goods and making it a major destination for global investment and a leading country in outbound investment.

“Through these efforts, we have advanced a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth.

China has since increased cooperation with African countries through the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and has pledged billions of dollars in developing African countries through win-win agreements.

The Asian giant is now partnering African countries and assisting them in their efforts to transition from fossil energies to cleaner green economies.

This policy by China resonates well with Zimbabwe’s ‘open for business mantra’ which has seen the Second Republic led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa deliberately implement a raft of reforms to attract foreign capital after years of isolation.

And China is among the countries that have taken advantage of this opportunity and has since invested billions of dollars into the Southern African country in different sectors of the economy including agriculture, mining and infrastructure development.

The investments by China in the lithium mining sector will place both countries as leaders in the electric car manufacturing industry as Zimbabwe is expected to become a global battery exporter.

Just like China, Zimbabwe’s new policy on international trade and investments has seen the country attract countries from across the world and is now trading with countries which had long severed ties with the country before the entrance of the Second Republic.

While China has set out to create new opportunities for the world with its own development, thereby contributing to the building of the global economy, Zimbabwe, on the other hand, is on a re-engagement drive meant to restore economic and political relations and retain its global citizenship.

The efforts by the Zimbabwe government have seen renewed confidence in the country and many countries have expressed interest to invest in Zimbabwe, and a number of multi-million mega deals have since been penned with international investors.

The country is now poised to achieve an upper-middle income economy by 2030, with the mining sector expected to reach the USD12 billion economy by 2030, thanks to massive investments especially from Chinese companies.

Through China’s opening up strategy, Zimbabwe stands to be benefit more as the Asian giant has set out on a massive infrastructure development drive in the country, having already constructed Zimbabwe’s new state of the art parliament building in Mt Hampden, and renovated the country’s airports and modernised the Beitbridge border post to ensure efficient movement of cargo and passengers.

Several other infrastructure development projects are on the cards and these will contribute immensely to the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe, thus open the country to more investments.

China on the other hand, has increased its investment footprints across the globe positioning it as the global economic leader through its high-quality economic development.

Zimbabwe, just like any other country where China is investing, will benefit from the Asian country’s science and technology expertise which will modernise its economy and place it among other upper middle income economies by 2030.