Zimbabwe's re-elected veteran President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday pledged to further cooperate with China in salvaging its economy and maintain the "best" relations with China in Africa.

"We are good just now, but we want to be better," Mugabe told Xinhua on the eve of his inauguration for another five-year of presidency. "Economically, we want to cooperate very much."

The octogenarian leader identified a number of areas for potential cooperation, including mining, manufacturing, infrastructure and farming.

"We still have lots of minerals underground that we want to get them up. Lots of our factories have gone down that we want to get them up," he said. "We also want better and wider roads as there are too many accidents because of the narrow roads now and we want to correct that."

Zimbabwe, once among the most prosperous economies in Africa, is desperately looking for ways to re-emerge as a regional power after a decade of economic free-fall.

Mugabe hinges the recovery on the country's significant mineral reserves and controversial "indigenization" program, which requires foreign businesses cede 51 percent of the stake to black Zimbabweans.

Re-elected in the July 31 polls, Mugabe beat his main challenger Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to add another five years to his legacy of a 33-year rule.

Mugabe's inauguration on Thursday will mark a fresh start of the economically-fragile country as it retires the bickering coalition government formed mainly between Mugabe and Tsvangirai's political parties, following the disputed 2008 elections.

The coalition government was credited for arresting a years-old hyper-inflation that wiped out store shelves and crushed the local currency Zimbabwean dollar, but both Mugabe and Tsvangirai had accused the other party of blocking their reform agenda.

Mugabe on Wednesday echoed what his subordinates had been saying that the new government will more aggressively push for cooperation with China.

"Of course, it would be much better than the past five years," Mugabe told Xinhua at the presidential office after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy Li Liguo.

Li, also head of the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, will be among African heads of state to witness Mugabe's swearing-in ceremony, which will be held in the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium built by the Chinese in the 1980s.

China established diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe upon its independence from Britain in 1980. The two countries' economic cooperation notably picked up pace in recent years after Mugabe launched a "Look East" policy after his relations with the West strained.

Last year, China emerged as Zimbabwe's top foreign investor with projects valued at 668 million U. S. dollars were approved by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority, accounting for 72 percent of the country's total foreign investment in 2012.

Big Chinese investments include leading diamond producer Anjin Investments, chrome producer Zimbabwe Mining and Alloy Smelting Company (Zimasco), and a number of energy and construction companies.

Analysts have said China's support will play a key role in Zimbabwe's economic turn-about as the West led by the U. S. and Britain has shown little sign to completely remove sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe since a decade ago.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has downgraded the projection of this year's GDP growth from 5 percent to merely 3.4 percent.

Mugabe has blamed the West sanctions for the under-performance of the economy.

Li told Mugabe that China's leadership has pledged its unchanged support to Zimbabwe and will encourage more investors to come.

"China will, as it did before, provide various sorts of aids for Zimbabwe's social and economic development," Li said.