President Emmerson Mnangagwa has refused to buckle down to
the sanctions imposed on the country by USA, saying the country will not
develop if it continues to mourn over the embargo.
President Mnangagwa and the First Lady, Amai Auxillia
Mnangagwa arrived in China today for the 7th China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)
Summit which kicks off tomorrow (Monday) and was welcomed at the Beijing
International Airport VIP section by Mr Lin Fusheng the Communist Party of
China Vice Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of
Beijing, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Retired
Lieutenant General Sibusiso Moyo, who travelled ahead of the presidential
delegation, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China Ambassador Paul Chikawa, Chinese
Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ambassador Huang Ping and staff members from the
Zimbabwe Embassy offices in Beijing, among others.
After being taken to a hotel, President Mnangagwa
immediately granted an interview to CCTV, in which he talked about the recent
sanctions renewal by USA and how his country is progressing in correcting past
mistakes.
“If we bury our heads in the sand and say there are
sanctions, we will always remain behind. To those who have put sanctions on us,
we are extending our hand of friendship, we are saying let us re-engage, engage
with those who have not engaged with us before and re-engage with those who
have disengaged with us and say what are the difficulties making us not work
together, let us dialogue around those issues, but beyond that as Zimbabweans
we are saying what potential, what resources do we have so that we exploit them
to grow our economy rather than say oh let us cry for those who have imposed
sanctions on us to remove them. They have their own reasons, so we are not
going to sleep because some people have imposed sanctions on us. So we must
ourselves do what we can without forgetting to appeal to those who yesterday
were against us and ask them whether there are any reasons anymore against us,”
he said.
On the way forward, Cde Mnangagwa said it is critically
important to be transparent, admit where policies in the past were constraining
economic development and make legislative amendments to improve the economic
environment.
“For instance we have the indigenisation [law], which was
constraining the flow of capital in the economy, we have already attended to
that, the issue of the cost of doing business… and the competitiveness of our
country in attracting investment,…..we have done a lot in removing the archaic
legislation that was constraining economic growth in our country,” he said,
adding that he is satisfied that by each day, Zimbabwe is improving its
competitiveness regionally and internationally in terms of attracting
investment into the country.
The President was invited by his Chinese counterpart,
President Xi Jinping to attend the FOCAC Summit and the two heads of state are
also scheduled to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit.
The world’s second leading economic powerhouse China is
hosting the FOCAC Summit where President Xi is expected to announce new steps
in China-Africa ties and cooperation between the Asian country and African
countries will focus on industrial development, infrastructure, trade and
investment, human resources development, science education, culture, health,
environmental protection as well as peace and security.
FOCAC was established in 2000 as a multilateral platform
for exchange and cooperation between the Asian giant and African countries.
In China, President Mnangagwa is accompanied by Minister of
Industry Cde Mike Bimha, Rserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya,
Zanu PF Politburo members Cde Munyaradzi Machacha and Cde Lovemore Matuke, the
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting
Services Mr George Charamba and some senior government officials. zbc
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