THE Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida) licensed more than 400 Chinese companies last year to operate in Zimbabwe’s various sectors amid suggestions that China is intensifying an economic and political takeover of Zimbabwe from former Western colonisers.
In a new report titled: China-Zimbabwe Relations, on a research conducted under the Zimbabwe multi-stakeholder reference group engagement programme, the Public Policy and Research Institute of Zimbabwe (PPRIZ) says 427 Chinese companies registered to operate in the country last year.
Presenting the research report in Bulawayo last week, PPRIZ research fellow Ronald Chipaike said the majority of Chinese companies given the go ahead to operate in various sectors of the economy went into mining.
“This is because the economy is extractive based, which means that most of the investors can go into mining, 95 into manufacturing, 57 in the service sector, 15 in the constructions and the rest into other sectors,” Chipaike said.
He said more than 90% of Zimbabwe’s lithium sector was now in the hands of Chinese investors.
“This becomes problematic because if you have 90% of the sector being controlled by investors from one country, it means that if they choose to go, there is going to be a big problem.
“It means that there is a need for diversification of these investors to ensure that there is stability going into the future,” he said.
“In 2023, Chinese companies were reported to have been awarded licences to invest US$2,9 billion in the lithium sector. One company that we used to know that was extracting lithium was Bikita Minerals.”
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Chipaike said civil society had also raised various concerns over the Chinese mining activities although they have also created employment opportunities.
He said the Sino Zimbabwe cement company manufacturing plant in Gweru produces more than 250 000 tonnes of cement each year and employs 400 workers.
The Sunny Yi Feng Tile Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited, Chipaike said, had also become a significant player in Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector.
“The company has become the biggest supplier of the product in the country of which 60 to 70% of the products are exported,” Chipaike said.
Zimbabwe adopted a Look East policy in 2005 which saw an influx of Chinese companies investing in the country. This has seen China becoming Zimbabwe’s biggest source of foreign direct investment and infrastructural development.
Chipaike said among several Chinese companies now dominating Zimbabwe’s lithium sector were Zhejiang, Huayou, Cobalt, Sino mine, Resource Group and Chongjin Lithium Group.
