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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Economic, Technical Agreement Signed between China, Zimbabwe

An economic and technical agreement was signed Monday in Harare between the governments of China and Zimbabwe.


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An economic and technical agreement was signed Monday in Harare between the governments of China and Zimbabwe.

The agreement was signed at brief ceremony in Harare where the Minister of Finance and Development, Hebert Murerwa, signed on behalf of the Zimbabwe government while the Chinese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Hou Qingru, signed on behalf of Chinese government.

According the agreement, the Chinese government would extend a grant of some 5 million US dollars to the government of Zimbabwe, which will be used in alleviating some of the difficulties the country is experiencing.

Murerwa expressed his government's appreciation of the Chinese assistance, which he said would be directed towards developing agriculture as well as supplementing government efforts to acquire food for its people.

"As you are aware we have had a drought. We need funds to buy food for our people who are facing food shortages," said Murerwa.

"We also want to develop our agriculture to build the capacity of our economy to face the prospect of an extended drought," he said.

Murerwa said a large portion of the grant would be used to procure irrigation equipment to develop the viability of the agricultural sector.

"We worry that the drought may continue until the next year so we want to be prepared for that," he said.

Qingru said as a traditional friend, China was obliged to come to the assistance of Zimbabwe during the difficult times it was going through.

"It is a small assistance to help you overcome this challenge you are facing. You can either use the money for importing Chinese equipment or you can use it to purchase food from China to feed your people," he said.

Qingru expressed optimism that the difficulties, which Zimbabwe was going through were temporary and that it would be able to overcome them.

"It is a challenge for the government and the people of Zimbabwe and we are convinced that under the leadership of President (Robert) Mugabe you will overcome them," he said.

He said his country had provided numerous grants to the government of Zimbabwe in the past 22 years and it was satisfied with the manner in which these had been used.

Qingru took the opportunity to reveal that 4,500 tons of yellow maize from his country were already at the Port of Durban in South Africa and would be arriving in the country soon.

China and Zimbabwe enjoy strong bilateral relations, which date to the struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe.

A significant amount of trade takes place between the two countries with Zimbabwe exporting the bulk of its tobacco to China.


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