eBusiness Weekly
Business Reporter
The country’s trade promotion body, ZimTrade and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which will enhance trade and investment between the two countries.
Trade between the two countries has now exceeded $1 billion since 2015, albeit currently skewed in favour of China.
The MoU was signed by ZimTrade chairman Allan Majuru and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade acting chief executive officer Jiang Zengwei.
The MoU, is effective for the next two years, and “shall be automatically extended for another two years upon the expiration date.”
The agreement, among other things, aims to further recognise and establish friendly and cooperative relations, support trade and investment promotion activities; and to set up the information sharing mechanism: regularly exchange information of economic and trade updates, laws and regulations, policy measures, industrial standards and trends, market analysis reports, exhibitions and forums, trade leads as well as investment projects in two nations.
It is also targeted at actively setting up a platform of business consultation and dialogue, and to put into place a mechanism of coordination underpinned by governmental dialogues and business collaboration between the two nations; as well as to properly utilise resources on both sides to jointly facilitate national business participation in industrial dialogues; and to strengthen cooperation and consultation under the framework of relevant international organizations and conferences which both parties are engaged in.
Additionally, it will help support the two countries’ economic and trade researches, to assist the collection of national economic and trade information, together with business concerns pertinent to enhancing bilateral economic cooperation, to organise exchanges between economic and trade experts, scholars and think tanks at national level.
The signing of the MoU comes as President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a private sector delegation are in China on a state visit to strengthen bilateral ties.
President Mnangagwa told a highly subscribed Zimbabwe-China Business Forum that the Zimbabwe was primed for economic growth.
“We invite you to come and invest in Zimbabwe and partner with us as we strive to grow our economy in pursuit of our vision to become a middle income country with increased investment, decent jobs, broad-based empowerment, free from poverty and corruption by 2030,” he said.
“We have the resolve and political will to entrench and ingrain clear, consistent, coherent and friendly-to-business policies to further our national aspirations and development agenda.”
The business forum was organised by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
It was attended by over 50 business delegates from Zimbabwe.
