Zim-China Business Forum oversubscribed, surpasses expectations

The Zimbabwe – China Business Forum that ends today (Thursday) in Beijing, was a resounding success with participating firms managing to establish business leads and partnerships with their Chinese counterparts, according to ZimTrade chief executive officer, Allan Majuru.

The Zimbabwe-China Business Forum is the brain child of ZimTrade, the country’s trade development and promotion body and is one of the first few business forums between China and another country post Covid-19.

The Business Forum’s objectives included facilitating a platform for networking and establishing partnerships and improve the visibility of Zimbabwean products in the Chinese market in line with the economic diplomacy championed by President Mnangagwa whose mantra has always been to open the country for doing business.

“I think in terms of the initial objectives and what expectations we had both as a country and as business, we surpassed those expectations.

“If you look before Covid-19, not much activity was happening between China and Zimbabwe in terms of business forums, but from what I was made to understand Zimbabwe is one of the first few countries that has managed to come to China and hold a Business Forum post Covid-19 and that alone shows the hunger that is there for us as countries to do business, “ Majuru said.

Two of the major highlights of the Business Forum were business to business engagements as well as factory visits.

On Wednesday, a Group of delegates toured Great Walls Motors, the makers of the Haval SUV brand currently selling in Zimbabwe who showed keen interest in exploring further investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.

Allen Liu, Industrial Investment Director with Svolt Energy Technology, a battery maker and subsidiary of Great Walls Holdings, said officials from the company will this year visit Zimbabwe for further engagements.

Kevin Lee, sales manager of Southern African Market for Great Walls Motors International, said the company will soon be introducing more vehicle brands, Tank and Ora into the Zimbabwe market where it currently has two models selling.

During the meeting Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) chief investment officer, Silibaziso Chizwina, called for further engagement with the view of having both GWM International and SVOLT Energy Technology establishing base in Zimbabwe.

Such engagements were in line with Business Forum’s objectives.

“I think in terms of imports, one good thing is that most companies have managed to make inroads in terms of sourcing quality raw materials and also quality machinery for them to enhance their competitiveness which is quite key,” said Majuru.

“And also some companies in the honey sector and horticulture sector have managed to also clinch deals and establish leads to enhance trade between our two countries.”

Majuru said trade and exports is a contact “sport” which needs continuous engagement with partners and markets for leads to come into fruition.

Jacqueline Gowe, Director at Sweet Maungwe Honey, visited Multi-Sweet Group a company into apiculture equipment, honey bee breeding, processing and packing.

She described the visit as an “awesome experience”.

Freeman Gutsa, Deputy Director, Strategic Policy Planning and Business Development in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Development, visited several manufacturers of agriculture equipment in the Shandong Province.

Farm mechanisation gap in country is huge with 11,000 functional tractor units versus a national requirement of 40,000, according to Gutsa.

“I have visited factories including an agriculture equipment company called Lansu doing a range of tractor equiment.

“My interest is equipment that is compatible with our small scale farmers especially the two wheel tractors and agricultural processing and harvesting bits.

“Hope is that we will be able to model a steady supply of such critical bits of equipment with a view of ensuring establishment of a local assembly plant for such compatible equipment,” Gutsa said.

Ju Yu, a processed foods Distributor in China, said there is huge potential to grow business between Zimbabwe and China.

“We are looking for more support from Zimbabwe side and make our business grow faster and benefit both countries.

“We are very interested in all the agriculture products from Zimbabwe such as citrus, blue berries, avocados, we are very interested in that and we are seeking more importers from the Chinese side to contact Zimbabwean companies and see that we can have a bigger room for businesses support, “she said.

The Business Forum comes as China has become Zimbabwe’s biggest source of FDI as reported by this publication this week.

In terms of trade, latest figures from Zimstat show exports to China for the month of April 2023 at US$117, 7 million and 21.2 percent of total exports, is the highest in 12 months.

Before that, the highest were May 2022 exports at US$67, 9 million and 13.2 percent of total exports for that month.

China was Zimbabwe’s third largest export destination for the period under review.

On the import side, China was number two in April 2023 with imports accounting for US$153, 8 million or 22 percent of the month’s total import bill. This is the highest in 12 months as well.

Apart from trade and investment related engagements, the Zimbabwe delegation also had tourism players looking at growing China as a source market.

Douglas Mavhembu, acting Director International tourism with the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry described the Business Forum as well as organised with attendance quite good.

“I think we managed to meet quality business people from China especially in the area of tourism, I think we had very good discussions with potential investors.-ebusinessweekly