Vice President Constantino Chiwenga arrived in Beijing this week to lead a high-level trade and investment mission aimed at deepening Zimbabwe’s economic partnership with China, with officials framing the visit as a drive toward value addition rather than raw resource exports.
Chiwenga was received on arrival by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China, Abigail Shoniwa, and a senior Beijing municipal commerce official, according to accounts of his welcome shared by Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding, who earlier saw the Vice President off at the airport in Harare.
Speaking in Beijing on arrival, Chiwenga said China’s investment capacity and industrial expertise made it a natural partner for Zimbabwe’s push toward resource-based industrialisation. He said the country’s growth prospects depended on shifting from raw exports toward beneficiation, manufacturing and value addition, describing the pairing of Zimbabwe’s resources with Chinese technical knowledge as a “win-win situation.”
Ambassador Shoniwa confirmed the Vice President’s itinerary would be anchored by his participation in the 13th China International Fair for Trade in Services, running from September 9 to 13 at Beijing’s Shougang Park, alongside an address to the Xiong’an Digital Trade Innovation and Development Conference. She said Chiwenga is leading a delegation that includes members of Zimbabwe’s business community and is expected to hold further meetings with Chinese government officials during the trip.
From Beijing, the delegation is scheduled to travel to Zhejiang Province, taking in Wenzhou and Hangzhou, where Chiwenga will tour Chinese companies and officiate at the Zim-China Business Forum. Officials say those engagements will focus on courting investment in mining, mineral processing, agriculture, agro-processing and manufacturing.
The programme also includes site visits to Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Holding Group, two Chinese conglomerates that already operate significant ventures in Zimbabwe’s mining and battery-metals sector, as part of efforts to secure expanded investment from firms with an established footprint in the country.
This year’s trade fair is expected to draw participants from roughly 90 countries, with organisers anticipating up to 250,000 delegates across the five-day event, among the largest editions since the fair’s launch.
The visit builds on a longstanding comprehensive strategic partnership between Harare and Beijing, under which Chinese firms have invested across mining, energy, infrastructure and manufacturing in Zimbabwe over the past decade. It comes as government intensifies efforts to attract fresh capital and expand local processing capacity, even as some domestic commentators have noted the trip carries a lower public profile than earlier state visits, coinciding with a period of heightened political attention within the ruling Zanu-PF over succession matters.
Chiwenga’s delegation is expected to return to Harare once the Zhejiang leg of the programme concludes.
