Chinese firms' CSR initiatives benefit Zimbabwe

Skills transfer

In Mutoko, Mashonaland East Province, Chinese investments in the granite mining industry are helping transform communities through skills transfer and job creation.

Robert Machinga, 24, who works at a Chinese-owned granite mining company, said before Chinese investments came to the area, granite rocks in the area were largely an unexploited resource that had no economic value to locals.

"We used to see these rocks and we had no idea that they were wealth, but with the coming of Chinese investors who brought jobs, we can see that our lives are changing. We are now taking care of our families, getting money, buying food and meeting other needs," he said.

While saying that Chinese investment in local quarries has brought employment in the area where economic activity was previously mainly subsistence farming, Machinga believes the Chinese-owned companies in the area are positively impacting local communities through their skills transfer initiatives.

"With the opening of companies in this area, so many things have changed. Speaking of myself, I gained skills to operate machinery. Many people can now fend for their families, unlike previously when you would wake up and spend the day sitting at home. So many things have changed, some are building houses and some are buying farming inputs," he added.

Prior to joining the company, Machinga had never acquired any technical skills. Currently, he is one of several young men who have joined the company and have undergone a trainee program to operate the machinery used at the site.

Chinese corporations are also helping transform livelihoods in the agricultural sector.

Debont Corp, an agriculture machinery and solutions supplier, is also aiming to bridge Zimbabwe's technology gap in the agricultural sector through technical skills transfer. The company is also engaged in educating local farmers and students on how to increase productivity through new technologies.

Fighting the pandemic

Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe have also thrown their weight behind the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before a single case of COVID-19 was detected in Zimbabwe, Chinese business enterprises, working under the guidance and coordination of the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe, mobilized funds and upgraded Wilkins Hospital in Harare. The hospital had been mandated to treat COVID-19 patients from across the country, but a dilapidated infrastructure could not permit the smooth flow of operations.

As part of efforts to strengthen Zimbabwe's capacity to handle COVID-19 patients, Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe mobilized resources amounting to $500,000 to revamp the hospital. The renovations were done in a record time of 10 days and were finished just before the country reported its first confirmed case of the virus on March 20, 2020.

In July 2020, a newly established state-of-the-art COVID-19 treatment center officially opened, with funding by Chinese firms operating in the country. Three Chinese firms teamed up with a local private medical institution to establish the facility in the capital of Harare.

The local partner, Health Point, is providing medical expertise while the Chinese firms are providing medical equipment and funding. The medical facility, named Health Point Upper East Medical Center, is able to accommodate 50 COVID-19 patients at a time.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has lauded the Chinese community and companies in Zimbabwe for donating medical supplies and providing technical support to Zimbabwe's frontline personnel.

Xinhua