Paul Chikawa

Zimbabwean ambassador to china

My expectations are very high because FOCAC is the premier platform for Chinaafrica cooperation in various fields, focusing especially on economic cooperation. In December 2015, during the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit in South Africa in 2015, President Xi Jinping announced 10 major cooperation plans between China and Africa and unveiled a budget of $60 billion.

I am very optimistic that this year’s summit will see more happenings between China and Africa. For Zimbabwe, being a country that was there in the beginning [of FOCAC], we expect lots of cooperation in various areas - these could be agriculture, mining, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, cultural exchanges, media exchanges, and health and security.

Overall, I am very optimistic that this is an opportunity where the Chinese leadership represented by President Xi Jinping and the various African leaders [our leader included] will find various opportunities to discuss win-win cooperation under the present framework of what President Xi has crafted as Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and a community of a shared future for mankind.

[FOCAC] has boosted bilateral investment cooperation and trade relations. Just to illustrate this, when FOCAC started [in 2000], China was Zimbabwe’s leading foreign direct investor. The country invested about $600 million that year and was the No.1 investment partner for a number of years afterward. China has become the second biggest trading partner for Zimbabwe and all this is because FOCAC has given the platform and the umbrella to promote trade and investment relations, so it is a positive kind of relationship for us.

i am very optimistic that this is an opportunity where the chinese leadership represented by President Xi Jinping and the various African leaders [our leader included] will find various opportunities to discuss win-win cooperation under the present framework of what President Xi has crafted as Socialism with chinese characteristics for a new Era, and a community of a shared future for mankind.