by Gretinah Machingura and Zhang Yuliang

HARARE, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) came under the spotlight at an international conference here on Friday as researchers, business people, and representatives of government organizations and institutions deliberated on its impact on Africa's development.

The conference was organized by the University of Zimbabwe in conjunction with the Confucius Institute.

"The motive of China's BRI is to open up the economy and create trade links and networks with the rest of the world," the university's Pro-Vice Chancellor Pedzisai Mashiri said. "The route links China with Europe, Africa and Asia ... It's a very ambitious initiative but nonetheless very visionary indeed."

Mashiri said the BRI provides equal and inclusive opportunities for Africa, Zimbabwe in particular, contrary to the Western criticism that China is trying to impose its own development model on the world through it.

While the West's economic development model mixes trade with politics, China's development model through the BRI does not. "This is the major difference between Western strategy and China's strategy," he said.

Through BRI, China was not seeking to impose its own will on others but to cooperate with interested countries to enhance global trade, Mashiri said.

"It's a policy based on very solid principles of international cooperation and some of the principles are those of equality, transparency and universal recognition of international market norms and values," Mashiri said.

He was pleased to note that BRI trade routes, which had hitherto remained concentrated in North and East Africa, were now cascading down to southern Africa where infrastructure development was focusing on building business parks and special economic zones.

Transport infrastructure projects such as China upgrading airports in Zimbabwe would help not only consolidate BRI but also the recovery of Zimbabwe's economy, he said.

Charity Manyeruke, dean of the faculty of social studies at the university, said BRI offers an exciting, important opportunity for Africa to leapfrog its economic development.

"Zimbabwe is under sanctions from the West and China stands as a very important, strategic partner," Manyeruke said.

She said BRI offers stabilized China-Africa cooperation because it creates many development opportunities for the continent. She also said it was refreshing to note that China was pursuing peaceful development in Africa as opposed to the Western model, which, she said, sometimes causes war and conflicts.

BRI would boost regional integration and employment creation in Africa through various projects, she said.

"BRI is the beginning of a new development agenda being set between China and Africa. Zimbabwe must engage with China with a lot more vigor than before as a comprehensive, strategic partner," she said.