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Farai Kuvirimirwa Harare Bureau
The Islamic Republic of Iran is impressed with the environment in Zimbabwe and they will assist small to medium scale enterprises as they play a significant role in economic development, an envoy has said.

Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mohammad Amin Nejad said this yesterday at the Harare Chamber of SMEs in the capital.

“We understand we should work together with Zimbabwe since we’re in the same trend of development. Iranians have a clear agenda of the Zimbabwean economy and assistance on rebuilding it since it’s based on indigenous empowerment,” said Amin Nejad.

“The Iranian private sector is impressed with what their Zimbabwean counterparts are doing and that will strengthen capacity building and fruitful win-win cooperation between the two countries.

“We’ve traditional and historic relations with Zimbabwe and in line of this vision and policies of our two countries, we’re implementing some initiatives targeting to improve our relations in the economic field.

“We’re working with Minister (of Small to Medium Scale Enterprises and Cooperatives Development Cde Sithembiso) Nyoni whose ministry is a very crucial sector in your country and that will bring together Zimbabwean and Iranian economic players,” he said.

Amin Nejad indicated that Minister Nyoni’s recent visit to Iran was to meet various players in the Asian country after an invitation by her Iranian counterpart.

“There’re discussions with the government and those from the private sector. It was meant for Zimbabweans to see the achievements of Iranians during the time of the embargo which Zimbabwe is experiencing and we tried to rebuild our economy and lives.

“Iran is a desert country, there’s no water and if we work together we will conquer. Zimbabwe has water and can sell its agricultural produce to Iran,” said Amin Nejad.

Cde Nyoni revealed that agreements had been signed in various sectors between Zimbabwe and Iran which would facilitate implementation of Zim-Asset through private public partnerships.

“There’re a lot of businesspeople in Iran willing to do joint ventures in Zimbabwe. The SME community is growing and we’re encouraging them to have joint ventures with serious business people.

“We signed various agreements and we’re going to make sure our actions reflect much on what we’ve agreed upon,” Cde Nyoni said.

The event in Harare was attended by Iranian businessmen and several members of the SMEs community.