Mugabe to nurture ties in East
2005-07-22 20:04
Special Report
A new team of SA mediators have held their first talks with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in a fresh bid to ease tensions within the strained unity government, a report says.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he doesn't expect the US sanctions on his country to be lifted soon.
Fanuel Jongwe
Harare - Shunned by his former friends in the West, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will visit China from Saturday as he forges ahead with his "Look East" policy to foster new relations with Asian nations.
Mugabe, who last visited China in 1999, is expected over six days to hold talks with senior leaders including his counterpart Hu Jintao.
Following sanctions and isolation from Western countries over the political crisis in the country, Zimbabwe has turned to Asia, seeking to buttress political and trade relations in particular with China, Malaysia and Singapore.
"We have turned east where the sun rises and given our backs to the west where the sun sets," said Mugabe in April.
Zimbabwe reaps no benefits
However, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) economic affairs spokesperson Tapiwa Mashakada said Zimbabwe would not reap any benefits from Mugabe's trip.
"If previous trips are anything to judge by, there is nothing we can benefit from the trip in terms of bringing our country out of its current economic quagmire," said Mashakada.
Zimbabwe has signed several agreements with China in recent years including a deal that the Zimbabwean government says includes receiving 1 000 buses from China to take a 75% share of the urban transport sector.
But Mashakada said the "Look East" policy was a case of "going backwards and looking in one direction while the rest of the world is forging links and taking an integrated approach to economic development".
Zimbabwe not a pariah state
p>University of Zimbabwe lecturer Joseph Kurebga said Mugabe's trip would show even after severing ties with the United States and the European Union, Zimbabwe was not a pariah state.
"The visit which is in the spirit of the 'Look East' policy will demonstrate to the world we are not that much isolated," Kurebga said.
"The government has been able to show it still has friends."
In April, Zimbabwe's national airliner took delivery of two MA60 passenger planes bought from the Chinese state-owned AVIC aircraft manufacturer and received a third plane as a gift.
The Southern African country had earlier received six Chinese-made Karakorum (K-8) military trainer jets.
A special parliamentary committee in Zimbabwe heard in June last year that the defence ministry had bought 12 jets and 100 military vehicles from China.
Economists have warned the "Look East" policy could push local manufacturers out of business because of the influx of low-price Chinese goods, referred to as "zhing zhongs", which are flooding Zimbabwe.
"We are shooting ourselves in the foot by allowing the flooding of our markets by Chinese goods because at the end our own industries will collapse," Mashakada said.
Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn over the past five years characterised by high unemployment and poverty levels as well as galloping inflation and foreign currency and fuel shortages.
- AFP