The Zimbabwean government has been accused of misappropriating priorities after it emerged that it secured a $46 million grant to construct a new Parliament Building at Mt Hampden whilst civil servant salaries were not yet paid.
The agreement was signed by Macro Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister, Obert Mpofu during a meeting on the follow-up to the implementation of various projects being carried out by the Chinese.
This came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the same meeting that Zimbabwe was among six countries in Africa with which the Asian economic giant had signed framework agreements for production capacity cooperation.
The meeting that was attended by more than 100 government ministers from African countries, was a follow-up to the Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) held last year.
Mpofu said that apart from funding for the new Parliament Building, more agreements would be signed with China in agriculture and housing under the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement.
He was leading a delegation to the meeting made up of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made and Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
“Zimbabwe is an active member of this organisation (Focac) and we have submitted priority projects to be considered,” said Minister Mpofu.
Mpofu said he had a long meeting with Chinese Minister of Agriculture Mr Han Changfu during which they discussed some of the deals.
- Herald
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