China to help Harare build economic zones

CHINA would help Zimbabwe build special economic zones and industrial parks to jump-start exports and a struggling economy, its ambassador to Harare said yesterday, as a Chinese firm started expanding the country’s largest hydropower plant. The pledge by Beijing’s top envoy to Zimbabwe, Lin Lin, comes days after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe returned from a trip to China during which he sought financial help and investment from the world’s second-largest economy. Lin told Mugabe during a ceremony to mark the start of work to expand Kariba hydropower station, north-west of Harare, that Beijing was ready to deepen bilateral relations. Investors in the zones will benefit from special tax breaks and officials said they would not have to comply with black economic empowerment laws. – Reuters