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From Hebert Zharare in Algiers, Algeria
Zimbabwe and Algeria are negotiating major deals in many sectors of the economy that are set to boost the implementation of the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset, Presidential spokesperson George Charamba said here yesterday.

The negotiations come as Zimbabwe’s foreign policy has already started paying dividends following the signing of mega deals with Asian giants, China and Russia recently worth billions of dollars in areas that include infrastructure development, energy and mining.

This pours cold water on some sections of opposition politics and media that have been of late criticising President Mugabe’s foreign travels.

Charamba said a high powered technical delegation from Algeria was headed for Zimbabwe mid-April to scout for more areas of cooperation in many sectors of the economy.

This was revealed following a closed door meeting between President Mugabe and Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and his delegation comprising Minister Delegate in charge of Maghrebian Nations and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel, and the recently appointed Ambassador to Zimbabwe Nacerdine Sai.

“The President told the Algerian Prime Minister and I quote ‘We’re pushing for joint venture projects with Algerians, the joint projects with a country that we know. We know your past, you’ve been consistent, we trust you,’” said Charamba.

He said the areas the Algerians were interested in were the energy sector, water development, education, beneficiation of both minerals and agricultural products.

“You will notice that we’re concentrating largely on two key areas at a bilateral level. We’re concentrating on selling our infrastructural programme and you know that it’s a key pillar of Zim-Asset,” he said.

Charamba said Zimbabwe had abundant coal, water for hydro power generation and coal bed methane gas that needed to be exploited.

He said the Algerians had a lot of natural gases and Zimbabwe was enthusiastic that it was going to benefit from the North African State’s experience in the area over a long period of time.

Charamba said Zimbabwe wanted to get technology from Algeria to extract methane gas in Lupane in Matabeleland North province.

He said the region was facing an energy deficit, adding that the excess energy to be produced from the joint venture projects would be “dumped” onto the national grid and exported.

He said in view of the recurrent droughts Zimbabwe has been experiencing, it was agreed during the meeting with the Algerians that the two countries form joint projects on water development.

Charamba said Algeria was very advanced in the use of water and its agriculture sector had state of the art infrastructure adding that there was need for the North African country to help Zimbabwe develop irrigation infrastructure and construct more dams.

He said that one of the clusters of Zim-Asset, beneficiation, was going to benefit much from the proposed joint venture deals given that the Algerians were keen on the development of technology to add value to minerals such as chrome, iron, tin and diamonds.

Charamba said there was need for the country to go beyond the exportation of raw minerals.

He said in the agriculture sector the North Africans were interested in setting up state-of-the-art tobacco processing infrastructure that had the potential to increase the value of the crop five times before export.

“A team of experts is going to be dispatched to Zimbabwe in mid-April and I think the idea is they want to combine the trip with ZITF in Bulawayo. That team will be composed of representatives of government and experts in energy, industrial technology and agriculture and some entrepreneurs who want to expand down south.”

He said Algeria had a lot of investable capital that Zimbabwe wanted to tap into, adding that the Zimbabwe Algeria joint commission that had been dormant for about five years would be activated.

He said the commission was likely to have its meeting in Algeria in October this year.

He said in manpower development, the Algerian Prime Minister said his government would double the scholarships Zimbabwe was receiving to 80, adding that government would prioritise technical areas that included the energy sector among others.

He said Zimbabwe’s foreign policy would reap massive economic spin offs in the long run.

Zimbabwe’s relations with Algeria date back to the days of the liberation struggle and the two countries have been cooperating in the areas of education and trade among others.

According to statistics, the Zimbabwe-Algeria scholarship programme that started with 17 students in 2005 has seen about 466 students studying in various areas including medicine, engineering, pharmacy and dental surgery.

Speaking through an interpreter after meeting President Mugabe, Prime Minister Sellal reinforced the need for the two countries to work together including sending a technical team to Zimbabwe and to revamp the joint commission.

President Mugabe who is on a three-day official state visit is expected to meet Zimbabwean students studying in Algeria today.

Late yesterday, President Mugabe met Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for two hours and details of the meetings could not be obtained yesterday. A dinner was later held in his honour last night.