Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter

Zimbabwe’s ability to embrace and exploit innovation, science and technology will have a telling effect on industrialisation and development towards an upper middle income economy, Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga has said.

He made the remarks in his virtual address to the Zhongguancun (ZGC) – a high-level international forum for enhancing global innovation in science and technology.

Forum organisers say the ZGC facilitates global exchanges and cooperation on high-tech innovation which informs the decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

To this end, the Second Republic is on a drive to promote innovation in various sectors of the economy as well as ICT uptake.

In his address, VP Chiwenga said Zimbabwe was configuring its systems towards the 2030 vision mainly through the adoption of innovation science and technology development for industrialisation.

“Zimbabwe’s pursuit of Vision 2030 is anchored largely on the ability to harness Innovation Science and Technology Development for industrialization,” said VP Chiwenga.

“To achieve this, the country has transformed its education to Education 5.0 which embraces innovation and industrialisation as key pillars.

“The country has established innovation hubs and industrial parks at universities and colleges, aimed at producing skilled manpower and products based on Zimbabwe’s natural heritage.

“The ultimate objective of this drive is to promote import substitution and to domesticate value chains as pillars for industrial growth and modernisation of Zimbabwe.”

VP Chiwenga thanked the People’s Republic of China for coming in a very strong way to support Zimbabwe in this endeavour, particularly through offering technological support through the Zimbabwe Centre for High-Performance Computing.

Through this cooperation, VP Chiwenga said, Zimbabwe was now leveraging the use of Science and Technology through the Centre for High- Performance Computing.

“It is important to note that, as a result of our cooperation, Zimbabwe is currently one of the few countries in Africa that has full-fledged High Performance Computing infrastructure,” he said.

“The implementation of the High Performance Computer in Zimbabwe has therefore leapfrogged the country in terms of its continental research and innovation status.”

VP Chiwenga said another area where Zimbabwe and China could consolidate cooperation was in Space Science and Technology.

He mentioned that the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency and the Land Satellite Remote Sensing Application Centre (LASAC) of People’s Republic of China are in the process of negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of earth observation and high-resolution remote sensing data processing.

“In addition to the above-mentioned projects, Zimbabwe has demonstrated its confidence in Chinese Science and Technology by purchasing a wide range of its scientific and research equipment and industrial equipment and machinery from China,” said VP Chiwenga.

“The People’s Republic of China has also supported Zimbabwe in the area of human capital development through short and long-term training programmes particularly targeted at members of the civil service

“The training, which China continues to offer, has advanced and useful knowledge in many scientific and industrial fields.”