China plays key role in Zimbabwe's path to industrialization: Zimbabwean official

HARARE, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China is a key player in Zimbabwe's quest to transition from primary industries to manufacturing value chains, a Zimbabwean official said Tuesday.

In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the Southern African Development Community Industrialization Week underway in Zimbabwe's capital city of Harare, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Rajeshkumar Modi said the country can leverage its ties with China to promote industrialization.

Stating that industrialization is a key component of development, Modi hailed China's support for Zimbabwe's industrialization agenda.

"China is already playing a very big role in Zimbabwe's industrialization, and we are grateful for that," said Modi, adding that he hoped China will help Zimbabwe go up the value chain to bring more benefits to the country.

"If we get to that, local people can benefit, they can get more employment and that can help our economy," he added.

Zimbabwe, a country endowed with key mineral resources including lithium, a key resource in the global green energy transition, has traditionally depended on primary products as the main source of exports.

The southern African country has made concerted efforts over the years to increase the value addition of local resources by adopting policies that push for moving up value chains as compared to exporting raw materials or partially beneficiated products.

Noting the role that Chinese companies are playing in advancing Zimbabwe's industrial development, Modi said transitioning to secondary and tertiary industries is the only path to realizing Zimbabwe's Vision 2030 of attaining an upper-middle-income economy status.

"There is a need to increase the value addition of our mineral wealth so that we can get more benefits from finished products," he said. "That way China can help Zimbabwe attain Vision 2030, that's what they can do, and I am sure they are able to do it."

Vision 2030 is a national development economic plan adopted by the Zimbabwean government in 2018, aiming to transform the country into an upper-middle-income economy by 2030 through innovation-driven growth and industrialization.