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Andrea Zhou
Program Officer for Infrastructure, JICA Zimbabwe

Andrea Zhou

Andrea Zhou is a Program Officer for Infrastructure at JICA Zimbabwe Office and is responsible for supporting the implementation of grant aid and technical cooperation projects as well as assisting with project formulation aimed at improving the country's infrastructure, particularly in transport.

Zimbabwe is an ever-growing country, which falls in the center of the Southern part of Africa and acts as a hub for traffic and electric transmission in the region. It also lies within the North South Corridor, this corridor begins in Durban, South Africa, passing through Zimbabwe and ends in Lubumbashi, DRC.

Andrea is of the perception that being a Program Officer has allowed her to see "the great impact that JICA has had on improving section of road along the Northern Part of the North South Corridor, particularly between Makuti and Hell's Gate. This section had been an area of congestion as well as terrible road accidents by commercial trucks, but by improving that section, there was a decrease in both congestion and accidents."

Alongside this project, Andrea applauses another project she has been proactively engaged in, the One Stop Border Post at Chirundu, which aims to improve efficiency in border management and operations, thus reducing the time and cost of crossing the border. Andrea describes the project as "not only changing the face of border management in general, but this project has had immense positive and sustainable impact, particularly for commercial trucks as the time spent at the border has decreased and has helped the movement of goods between Zambia and Zimbabwe."

She says, "These projects have led to contributing to the achievement of one of JICA Zimbabwe's priority areas, "Promotion of Economic Integration within the Southern African Region." The projects are key to harvesting Zimbabwe's rich mineral and agricultural resources since they promote logistical and infrastructural development, fosters transport linkages across the corridor and promote trade facilitation. Overall, infrastructure development in Zimbabwe is important as it can improve more than just the economy but also promote regional integration."

Going forward, Andrea is excited to see how the development being made by JICA will continue to shape and transform infrastructure in Zimbabwe and how it will positively affect the economy of the country.