The People’s Republic of China has donated to Zimbabwe the recently completed US$100 million new Parliament Building in Mt Hampden, about 23km from Harare.
China funded the construction of the structure for Zimbabwe to boost friendship and solidarity between the two countries which dates back to the days of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle when the Asian nation supplied weapons and trained fighters.
Addressing reporters during a familiarisation tour of the new Parliament building, Shanghai Construction group manager Libo Cai said:
Zimbabwe’s new Parliament building is one of the most important projects in the China-Africa cooperation exercise, which is aimed at strengthening solidarity between the people of Zimbabwe and China while improving facilities in Parliament to ensure better services to Zimbabweans at large.
The project strongly supports democracy in Zimbabwe, while boosting the country’s image.
The building, funded by the Chinese government through ChinaAid, consists of the National Assembly which can accommodate 350 people, while the Senate has 100 seats.
The seats are of different sizes to cater for both the slim and heavily built Members of Parliament (MPs).
Work on the project commenced in November 2018 but its completion was delayed by the coronavirus crisis.