The president of Zimbabwe Mugabe has visited China, in a bid to seek help to build the country’s infrastructure. This is according to the president’s spokesman George Charamba.
Mugabe will seek China’s intervention in building infrastructure, among them roads, railway and power generation. Chinese president Xi has already hailed Mugabe as a renowned leader, which would signify positive early response.
Zimbabwe’s economy is faced with a lot of challenges that have caused factories to shut and massive deflation.
The political uncertainty, according to a 2014 market research, continued to dissuade investors in the construction industry in the country. Construction industry, the research adds, continues to remain weak even with vast resources in the country and is expected to attain a dismal growth of 3.29% between 2014 – 2023. Reports have also indicated that the country has realized a slump in foreign economic investments in this year from 59 percent to $67.
China could offer hope, because research shows that Chinese firms have continued to defy risk warnings in Zimbabwe’s power sector.
AFDB indicates that Zimbabwe will need a US$40 bn to revamp the infrastructure and increase network capacity. The 2014 AFDB’s “An Infrastructure Action Plan 2011 – 20” for Zimbabwe shows that the country will still need to undertake serious regulation reforms and capacity building to sustain infrastructure quality after revamping.
