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By Thulani Munda HARARE – Zimbabwe posted
a trade deficit of US$189 million in the first six months of 2007 against
China, the price of a costly marriage of convenience founded on Harare’s quest
for friendship and Beijing’s search for cheap raw materials. Bilateral trade between
the two countries clocked US$205 million between January and June, almost 80 percent
of the US$270 million registered during the whole of 2006. But out of this amount,
Zimbabwe’s exports to China in the first half of 2007 were a paltry eight
percent of total bilateral trade, according to statistics announced yesterday
by Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Yuan Nansheng. “In the first half of
this year, the bilateral trade volume reached US$205 million while China’s
imports from Zimbabwe was US$16 million,” Yuan told guests at a ceremony
marking 58 years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Harare. He said trade volumes had
remained bullish so far in the second half of the year and could surpass US$400
million by year-end. Zimbabwe has since 2000
strengthened its relations with China as part of a “Look East” policy premised on the need to find new trading
partners and markets following the souring of relations with Western governments
that protested President Robert Mugabe’s violent land-grab programme. China becomes the investor
with the fastest direct foreign investment growth in Zimbabwe, replacing the Western
countries. The two countries have
signed a series of agreements in infrastructure, tourism, energy and mining but
the cooperation has largely not translated into an improved standard of living
for ordinary Zimbabweans. Harare has literally
handed over control of most sectors of the economy to the Chinese in return for
short-term financial assistance to enable Mugabe’s government to ride one
crisis after another. Figures from the economic
and commercial counselor's office of the Chinese embassy in Harare show that Zimbabwe
recently bought more than 100 000 tonnes of fertilizer and pesticides from
China using a US$200 million buyer's credit loan obtained from Chinese banks. The southern African
country faces a crippling shortage of fertilizer after most local producers closed
their factories, citing lack of raw materials. Analysts have however
criticized Harare for mortgaging the country for the sake of short-term
benefits. A senior Chinese diplomat
recently revealed that Beijing had slowed investment in Zimbabwe in a sign that
it may be heeding Western demands that it quit backing regimes considered
despotic. The withdrawal of
economic support from Zimbabwe's largest investor and only major global backer
is a serious blow to Mugabe, an 83-year-old liberation hero who has clung to
power in Zimbabwe for nearly three decades. Chinese officials had
dismissed a British news report in late August that said China had suspended investment
projects in Zimbabwe. But Liu Guijin, a former
ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa who is the nation's special envoy to Sudan,
this month acknowledged a slowdown in investment and cast the issue in terms of
economic turmoil gripping Zimbabwe. "China's assistance
to Zimbabwe is mainly humanitarian aid, because in terms of other development
assistance we still have some difficulties," Liu said at a press briefing. "In the past, China
has provided substantial development aid. Now, with the devaluation of the currency
and deterioration of the economic situation, the outlook for this aid is not
very good." Zimbabwe is in the throes
of an eight-year-old economic crisis marked by world record inflation of nearly
6 600 percent and acute shortages of foreign currency to import food,
electricity and fuel. - ZimOnline |