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President Mugabe chats with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at Harare International Airport

Zimbabwe is poised for an economic boom following the signing of deals worth $4 billion with China on Tuesday. The two countries signed 12 investment agreements covering different sectors of the economy. The signing of the deals was witnessed by President Robert Mugabe and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping who was on a two-day State visit.

President Xi who arrived in the country on Tuesday was accompanied by about 200 people including senior Chinese government officials and representatives from the Communist Party of China. Under the agreements, China will soon extend loans to Zimbabwe amounting to more than $1,1 billion for the expansion of Hwange Power Station and TelOne’s broadband access project.

The project to expand Hwange Power Station is expected to receive close to $1 billion. The government was also given a grant of $65,5 million for the construction of Parliament building, the NatPharm warehouse and other projects. Zimbabwe has for the past 15 years been unable to secure long term loans to fund infrastructure because it is in arrears with global lenders — the IMF and World Bank.

The multi-lateral institutions might resume financial support to Zimbabwe after a deal was struck with the international creditors on how the country intends to repay its arrears. The year 2016 looks very promising and there is every reason to celebrate given that most of the promised money will be released in the first half of the year. The implementation of the projects under the mega deals will positively impact on all sectors of the economy.

Most of the projects set to be implemented under the mega deals are key economic turnaround enablers. The different sectors of the economy should therefore brace for this economic boom. Many industries will be required to provide materials for the different projects while others will be sub-contracted to undertake some work hence the need to get ready.

Industry should not be found wanting when it comes to supplying the required materials and those sub-contracted should have the capacity to undertake the work. Zimbabwe boasts of a highly skilled manpower which is sought after globally and we have no reason to doubt that locals will constitute the bulk of the manpower to undertake the projects.

The completion of the projects will make Zimbabwe a very attractive investment destination as investors will be guaranteed enough electricity as well as state-of-the-art communication infrastructure among other incentives. We want to once again implore all sectors of the economy to prepare adequately for the expected economic boom.

Let the good times roll!