Chinese, Russians compete for Zim spoils

, will also meet officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
In a letter to the state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) dated June 30, 2006 TurboEngineering managing director Alexey Semenkov said Russian and international banks – which he did not disclose – had agreed in principle to finance Zimbabwean power projects.
“Since the date of your information receipt we held some preliminary discussion with Russian and international banks regarding the possibility of the projects finance in Zimbabwe and had their principal agreement to continue the discussions on this subject,” reads Semenkov’s letter, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline.
The three projects estimated to cost hundreds of millions of US dollars to develop would yield close to 1 000 megawatts once in full production and would end to Zimbabwe’s crippling power shortages.
Mugabe, shunned by the West since 2002 over accusations of repression and human rights violations, has turned to China and Russia in search of help to resuscitate Zimbabwe’s comatose economy.
In the power deal signed with China, Beijing will help build new coal mines and three thermal power stations in the Zambezi valley along the border with Zambia. In exchange, Zimbabwe will provide China with chrome.
Chinese companies are also to rebuild Zimbabwe’s rail network, supply trains, buses and farm equipment under several other economic co-operation deals between the two countries. – ZimOnline