CHINA has pledged more than US$10 million in additional food aid to Zimbabwe as part of efforts to avert food shortages in the country, NewsDay can report.
The southern African country is facing its worst dry spell in four decades in what has seen the majority of its population face hunger owing to failed crops, loss of livestock and crippling water shortages among other impacts.
Speaking on Friday during the reception for China-Zimbabwe Human Resources Development (HRD) Cooperation 2024, Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding said the donation was part of many collaborative projects to strengthen immense cooperation between the two nations.
“In response to Zimbabwe’s food shortage caused by the El Nino-induced drought, China has delivered two batches of food assistance worth about US$6 million, another two batches worth more than US$10 million will be delivered soon, so as to address the pressing needs of the most vulnerable communities,” said the ambassador.
He revealed that, in the first nine months of this year, Chinese investments in Zimbabwe short to US$3 billion.
“The robust trade and investment relations between us keep yielding benefits for both of us, including the huge increase of tax revenue and employment on (the) Zimbabwean side,” the envoy told scores of local beneficiaries who visited the Asian country recently as part of the embassy’s Human Resources Development (HRD) cooperation exchange programmes.
Approximately 700 Zimbabwean nationals from different sectors participated in various training programmes including education, finance, agriculture, health, public administration, poverty alleviation, diplomacy, tourism, railways, digital economy, green development.
According to Zhou, HRD cooperation has always been an integral part of the two countries’ relations, as it propels inherent talents towards achieving mutual development.
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“Fostering talents is the common task of both our two countries and it takes lots of time and lots of hard works,” he said.
“China is determined to conduct more intensive and extensive cooperation on human resources with Zimbabwe.” Meanwhile, as trade grows between the two countries, China has embarked on several empowerment programmes including the drilling of boreholes for the benefit of rural populations and communities.
To further promote rural development and poverty reduction, China has pledged to build a large number of solar-powered facilities including classrooms, and to upgrade some irrigation systems for the benefit of rural communities.
