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'Leapfrog to League of Progressive Nations': Zimbabwe Opens Chinese 600MW Power Stations

Zimbabwean authorities announced an end to the 19-hour power outages the country has faced in recent years this past July. Earlier, Zimbabwe's state-owned energy company ZESA declared the goal of doubling the country's energy grid by 2025.
A Chinese-funded Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project has added 600MW to Zimbabwe's national grid, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in a statement.
The expansion was undertaken by the Chinese firm Sinohydro, adding two new generators of 300MW each, Unit 7 and Unit 8, to the existing six units at the power plant.
The leader commended China for its endeavor to support Zimbabwe's infrastructure development and added that the investments of this nature draw Harare closer to achieving the Vision 2030 targets , seeking to fundamentally transform Zimbabwe to an upper-middle-income economy.
"International investments like this help drive our country forward towards #vision2030," Mnangagwa said on Twitter (now also known as X).
The president added that the successful implementation of the 600MW project in record time, along with improving food security, building and rehabilitation of roads and public infrastructure, are "tangible exhibits of government’s commitment to leapfrog Zimbabwe into the league of progressive nations."
Mnangagwa also emphasized during the inaugural ceremony that Zimbabwe's economy is "the fastest growing in our region."
"Our economy is the fastest growing in our region despite sanctions. Those who imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe didn’t expect that today we could be developing our country the way we are doing," he said.
Sanctions against Zimbabwe have been in force ( since 2002 when restrictive measures were imposed by the European Union and the United States.
This followed the land reform initiated by then-head of state Robert Mugabe in 2000, as a result of which almost all white farmers were deprived of their property. After Mugabe was ousted from the presidency in 2017, the EU and the US kept the sanctions intact, being renewed annually.
In late July, at the second Russia-Africa Summit, Zimbabwe and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.