Human capital development key to Sino-Zim cooperation

IN January this year, Zimbabwean civil servants who had undergone training in China through a bilateral human capital development programme, shared glowing insights about what they had learned and experienced during the period.

The experiences, they related, were eye-opening in that they acquired new technical skills; and not only that, they also gained “soft” skills and learned several aspects of Chinese culture from food to work ethic.

The testimonies were a small window into the importance of why it is necessary to have human capital development programmes between China and Zimbabwe through not just equipping participants with both hard and soft skills, but also to fostering greater understanding between the two people, which is an absolute necessity for strong bilateral friendship and bonds.

Zimbabwe and China's cooperation in the field of human capital development has been a success so far, but needs to be even accelerated. During the aforementioned ceremony, the Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding revealed that in the past 20 years, 6 000 Zimbabweans had been trained in

China, part of more than 160 000 African talents assisted.

Ambassador Zhou stated that “Human resources development cooperation has been a major highlight of China's foreign-aid programmes”, and that “China's assistance to developing countries is focused not only in fields such as infrastructure building, industrial and agricultural production and health care improvement but also on talent development and experience sharing”.

He explained: “Our human resources development cooperation with other countries covers a wide range of economic and social sectors. Besides traditional sectors, our training programmes also include emerging areas such as 5G communications, satellite technology, E-commerce, etc.

“In addition, China has also held more than 500 themed sessions on state governance sharing China's experiences in pursuit of modernisation.

“China's human resources development programs also take very flexible formats for the attendees to utilise. We carry out our programs both online and offline, we provide scholarship programs that may last for more than one year, as well as short-term training courses ranging from several days to several weeks.

"We dispatch experts and volunteers to developing countries to conduct training. We also engage in trilateral cooperation with international organisations such as the UNDP to jointly enhance the capacity building of the developing countries.”

He revealed that the human resources development cooperation had yielded “very fruitful outcomes”, which saw 490 Zimbabweans being trained in 2023 alone.

These were done under four legs of bilateral training programmes, specially designed and organised for Zimbabwe trainees.

These are the Ministerial Workshop on Zimbabwe Economic Development Planning, the Seminar on Strategies and Reforms in Zimbabwe's Economic Development, the Seminar on Public, Management for Senior Government Officials and the Training Course on Professional Nurse.

“I can proudly say that these programmes have all delivered tangible benefits to the attendees, many of whom have utilised what they've learned in China to perform their official duties,

conduct their academic studies, or grow their businesses more successfully.”

He also explained that through these training programmes, the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries had been strengthened, and the traditional friendship been further consolidated. More needs to be done

The field of human capital development offers wonderful opportunities for participants. It is also a pragmatic approach to building capacity of local people so that the two sides can be at par in understanding key issues and implementing policies and projects.

China's economy is well advanced, as it is the world's second-largest; it is complex, sophisticated, and humongous while the country has advanced governance politically and socially. It is trite to mention that many Chinese cities, provinces, or enterprises have bigger revenues than the entire government of Zimbabwe, like many other African countries. Therefore, to successfully cooperate, Zimbabwe has a lot of upskilling and capacity-building to bring it to the level of Chinese workers and civil servants.

This is against the backdrop that despite being one of the most literate countries in Africa, Zimbabwe has a skills deficit, with some reports stating that the country does not have 60 percent of the skills it requires to develop. This is a tragic scenario, compounded by the fact that the country is also facing a severe brain drain as skilled and even semi-skilled workers are leaving the country in search of the so-called greener pastures.

This emptying of talent in an already deficient system could have serious repercussions on Zimbabwe's development. It is also disadvantageous to foreign companies such as those from China, several of which have reportedly struggled to find some critical skills locally; or have had to lure back Zimbabweans who had gone to countries such as South Africa and Australia in the mining sector, for example.

A situation where local civil servants and officials are not adequately skilled can also affect the implementation of bilateral and multilateral agreements and policies. This bears explaining, to illustrate:

Over the years, China has had a number of cooperation frameworks and initiatives that could benefit African countries, including Zimbabwe. These frameworks and initiatives include the Forum on China- Africa Exchange (Focac), the signature cooperation framework, as well as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilisation Initiative,

and so on.

However, the cooperation and benefits conceived under them have not been fully exploited. Why? The reason is that most African countries lack the capacity to implement through crafting bankable projects or accounting for them. As a result, there has been less optimum uptake than planned.

Interestingly, some stakeholders wonder why a country such as Zimbabwe, which has very strong political ties with China may have fewer projects or economic cooperation than non-traditional allies of China on the continent.

The simple explanation to this lies in the capacity of the country to initiate, implement and manage projects, which means that those African countries that today have bigger projects with China are better equipped than those that do not.

The answer, therefore, lies in building the capacity of local people and institutions to familiarise themselves with Chinese standards, policies, and requirements so that the country can get more benefits.

Recommendations

The old adage that says, ‘Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime; is a well-recognised and acknowledged truism.

Zimbabwe needs to acquire lots of skills from China to be an effective partner with the world's second-largest economy, and soon-to-be global leader. There is enough goodwill and sound relations between

the two countries and they should take advantage of programmes and policies that promote human capital development. On its part, Zimbabwe must do more to initiate the upskilling and capacity development of its people from civil servants in the top echelons of power, administration and policy-making, right down to the man on the street.

Some key interventions may include: ◆ Language and basic education training ◆Vocational training ◆Tertiary education exchanges and

cooperation

◆ Industry standards harmonisation ◆Policy training

◆ Digital and Fourth Industrial Revolution-based capacity building in e-commerce, IoT, digital cultures, artificial intelligence, virtual/augmented reality, etc

◆Promotion of case studies through

media

◆Opening up of skilled immigration