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Zimbabwe seeks enhanced ties with Chinese city Qingdao

Xinhua, January 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Zimbabwean government and the Chinese port city of Qingdao on Wednesday signed a Memorandum to facilitate investment and trade between the two parties.

Led by Qingdao deputy mayor Wang Wei, the 10-member Chinese delegation comprising representatives of Qingdao Overseas Investment Services, Qingdao Bank of China and among others, arrived in the country on Tuesday to scout for investment opportunities, news agency New Ziana reported Wednesday.

The delegation is reciprocating a visit to the port city by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa mid-last year.

Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion acting minister Lazarus Dokora said the agreement was critical for improving economic cooperation between Zimbabwe and the Chinese port city.

"We are optimistic that this MoU will culminate in meaningful investment flow into Zimbabwe from the world's second largest economy, China," he said.

Wang said Qingdao was keen on twinning with Zimbabwe's capital Harare and the second largest city Bulawayo to ensure investment is decentralised to the provinces.

Dokora told the visiting delegation that there were vast investment opportunities in Zimbabwe's 10 provinces.

Economic councilor at the Chinese Embassy in Harare Li Yaohui said the visit, which comes hard on the heels of December's state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Zimbabwe, was meant to further deepen economic cooperation.

"It is a showcase of our efforts to create more business opportunities and consolidate our economic and commercial partnership," he said, adding more Chinese delegations seeking investment opportunities were expected in Zimbabwe this year.

According to the delegation, Qingdao invested about 38 million U.S. dollars in three projects in Zimbabwe in 2015, and was keen to scale up the investment.

Its trade with the rest of the African continent stood at 2.37 billion U.S. dollars between January and October 2015.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached 1.24 billion U.S. dollars in 2014. Endit