China has agreed to fund the construction of Zimbabwe’s new Parliament building in the capital Harare, a cabinet minister said here Wednesday.

Public Works Minister Theresa Makone told the privately run Radio VOP that Beijing had agreed to assist Harare roll out the Parliament building project which has been on the cards since 2006 but failed to take off due to lack of funds.

Makone said the new Parliament building would have state-of-the-art facilities found in other parliaments internationally.

The construction of a new Parliament building comes in the wake of an increase in the number of lawmakers since elections were held last year.

Zimbabwe’s present Parliament was built in 1895 as a hotel before being converted to a parliament in 1898.

The structure of the building remained unchanged until 1937. The chamber was enlarged between 1937 and 1938. In 1969, the building was raised to six storeys.

In 1989, the House of Assembly chamber was renovated to accommodate an additional 50 members.

In 2000, the House of Parliament was further expanded when an adjacent building was leased to it.

Zimbabwe has already awarded the tender to build the new Parliament building to a Chinese construction firm in yet another sign of growing ties between Beijing and President Robert Mugabe’s government.


Mugabe has cultivated relations with China as part of a new "Look-East" policy adopted after a fall out with Western countries that have imposed targeted sanctions on the Harare government as a punishment for failing to uphold human rights and democracy.


On a drive to expand economic links with Africa, China has since 2000 paid particular attention to Zimbabwe, selling Mugabe’s government fighter aircraft and agreeing to a number of business deals in exchange for mining and other concessions.