According to official figures, at least 35 large and medium- sized Chinese companies are operating in Zimbabwe, with a total investment of US$600 million, making China the largest single investor in this country.

Gong Guoxing is among the latest investors in Zimbabwe.

Two year ago, he bought a fast-food chain store, King Pie, from a former white settler with more than US$400,000, and now he has developed six supermarkets and 11 take-away restaurants throughout the Zimbabwe capital with an employment of more than 370 local workers.

Gong attributed his success mainly to the indigenized management. According to one of the board directors Tendai Sandi, the company has a 62-member management team, all of whom are local people, including general manager, assistant general manager and manager of human resources.

Nick-named "the fast-food king," Gong said more and more Chinese business people will find African countries like Zimbabwe a hot-spot to invest in.

According to Gong, the cultural differences between Chinese and locals also give advantages for Chinese businesses to be more successful in Zimbabwe than in China, as the local people tend to spend more than the Chinese. "It is a good idea to choose Zimbabwe to invest anyway," he said.

It is estimated that there are now 3,000 to 4,000 Chinese living and doing business in Zimbabwe. Some of them came to this country as early as in the 1890s while most of the Chinese have landed in Zimbabwe in late 1990s and early 2000s at a time when the country began to suffer from economic sanctions from the West.

Yuan said the Chinese community in Zimbabwe is not so big compared with the Western and Indian communities, but they add forces to the official-launched Chinese investment in this country and contribute greatly to the close relations between the two countries.