Thousands greet Xi in Zimbabwe
Print Edition
Thousands of people lined Harare’s roads to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping, with his visit raising hopes that China will help stabilize Zimbabwe’s faltering economy.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe greeted Xi at the airport, where some immigration signs are in Chinese, an indication of China’s importance to the southern African country.
Xi inspected a guard of honor at the airport but did not speak on his arrival.
Chinese nationals, Zimbabwean schoolchildren and people wearing shirts of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party held Zimbabwe and Chinese flags for up to 10 kilometers along the road to Harare Airport. Others wore T-shirts praising the friendship between Zimbabwe and China.
During his stay in Harare, Xi will hold talks with Mugabe, who is revered as an old friend of the Chinese people, and the two sides are expected to sign a series of cooperation deals covering such fields as infrastructure construction, investment, financing, culture and wildlife protection.
“I’m looking forward to having in-depth exchanges of views with President Mugabe on China-Zimbabwe relations as well as global and regional affairs of common concern,” Xi said in a written statement on arrival, adding that he believes his visit will strongly push forward the two countries’ cooperation in various fields.
China’s Import and Export Bank is expected to loan Zimbabwe more than US$1 billion to fund the 600 megawatt expansion of Hwange coal power station, officials said.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said four agreements on electricity generation, including the expansion of Hwange, would be signed, as well as deals on road construction and infrastructure development during Xi’s two-day visit.
China’s Sinohydro Corp won the US$1.5 billion bid to add two generation plants at Hwange in October last year, in the most ambitious move yet to tackle the country’s crippling electricity shortages.
“Financial closure has been reached and the agreement for Hwange 7 and 8 will be signed today,” Chinamasa told reporters yesterday.
China is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor, pumping in US$600 million in 2013, said Chinese ambassador to Harare Huang Ping.
Xi’s next stop will be South Africa, where he will meet President Jacob Zuma and later co-chair the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Johannesburg.
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