(Hello Africa) Zimbabwean company harnesses China's advanced technologies to promote business growth

People visit the exhibition stand of Zimbabwean company Comkwik at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Aug. 30, 2024. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Comkwik, a Zimbabwean company, is harnessing the technological innovations in China amid the booming trade relations between China and Zimbabwe to achieve business growth.

HARARE, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Comkwik, a Zimbabwean company, is harnessing the technological innovations in China amid the booming trade relations between China and Zimbabwe to achieve business growth.

The company, based in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, offers high-tech domestic, industrial, and commercial cleaning services. Other services provided by the company include landscaping, waste management, sanitary services, and personal protective clothing.

Comkwik is among the exhibitors that are showcasing at the six-day Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, one of the country's major business exhibitions held annually in Harare.

Some of the products procured from China that the company is exhibiting include interactive robots, cleaning robots, and landscaping robots.

"We thought of China because of the relations between Zimbabwe and China," Batsirai Mugauri, Comkwik's operations supervisor, told Xinhua Friday.

According to statistics from the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe, trade between China and Zimbabwe hit a record high of 3.12 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, a 29.9 percent increase from the previous year.

Zimbabwe's imports from China consist mostly of machinery, while exports to China are mainly minerals and agricultural products, according to ZimTrade, the country's trade promotion agency.

People visit the exhibition stand of Zimbabwean company Comkwik at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Aug. 30, 2024. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara)

Favorable trading conditions and business opportunities between the two countries have resulted in many Zimbabwean businesses seeking to gain a competitive edge in innovative technologies by procuring equipment from China.

"China is advanced in technology, so that was the country we thought where we can get our robotics from," said Mugauri.

Ease of doing business with China also makes the procuring of products efficient, he declared. "Ordering from China also has to do with issues of advanced technology. The price is a bit cheaper, then also it's faster for the products to come to Zimbabwe from China."

Mugauri noted that the advancement of innovative technologies in China has greatly benefited local businesses in Zimbabwe. "We want to bring the technologies in China here in Zimbabwe so that with this issue of globalization we can benefit from it also," he said.

The adoption of robots is a major component of Zimbabwe's digital transformation drive, and the country recently integrated robotics into school curricula.

In a recent interview, Zimbabwean Minister of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Tatenda Mavetera said the country aims to utilize its longstanding cooperation with China to advance its ongoing digital transformation.

"China and Zimbabwe have been friends for a very long time, and what we are just supposed to do is to make sure that we maintain that relationship, and then we can be able to capitalize on that relationship and also gain the experience that they have, which has made them one of the world's best-digitalized countries that we can talk of," Mavetera told Xinhua.