President deploys three ambassadors-designate President Mnangagwa poses for a photo with Zimbabwe’s ambassadors designate from left Sekai Nzenza (France), Abigail Shonhiwa (China) and Martin Makururu (Indonesia) after meeting them at State House in Harare yesterday. — Picture: Justin Mutenda

Wallace Ruzvidzo, Harare Bureau

President Mnangagwa yesterday met Zimbabwe’s three ambassadors-designate to France, China and Indonesia, with all expressing readiness to advance the economic diplomacy agenda the Second Republic has been pursuing.

Former Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza will be the ambassador accredited to France, Portugal, Spain and the Vatican plus Unesco and UN Tourism.

Former Industry and Commerce Permanent Secretary Mrs Abigail Shonhiwa has been deployed to China, while Mr Martin Makururu will represent Zimbabwe in Indonesia.

In separate interviews after their closed-door meetings with President Mnangagwa at State House yesterday, the diplomats pledged to push Government’s economic diplomacy agenda.

Ambassador-designate Nzenza said improving trade and investment would be a top priority during her tenure.

“His Excellency, the President of Zimbabwe, Dr Mnangagwa, has given me a task to be his ambassador for France, Portugal, Spain and the Vatican and at the same time I will be representative to Unesco and also to UN Tourism,” she said.

“That is a big portfolio and I am very eager and ready to promote Zimbabwe’s national interests, particularly in France. So we will be looking at promoting investment and trade and also to clearly exert the influence of Zimbabwe so that the Zimbabwean narrative and what Zimbabwe stands for, is fully understood not only in these countries that I have mentioned, but also in the rest of Europe.”

Dr Nzenza said the French business community had already registered their intent to co-operate with Zimbabwe, making her job easier.

Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga was in France last month where he met with the European country’s leading economic diplomacy arm, the Movement of Enterprises of France, who expressed great interest in cooperating with Zimbabwe.

Reacting to VP Chiwenga’s recent visit to France, Ambassador-designate Nzenza said it gave her a starting point.

“(French investors) are very keen to come to Zimbabwe and coming from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, as former minister, I have been working closely with the business and the private sector.

“France is a country that we are also very keen to see relationship building, particularly in the private sector, and also to promote investment in mining, agriculture, tourism and all sectors of the Zimbabwean economy.”

On her part, Mrs Shonhiwa said she would hit the ground running in furthering the already existing cordial relations between Zimbabwe and China.

“I will be promoting the already excellent relations that we have between Zimbabwe and China to a higher level. We want to see more investment, we want to see more tourists, we want to see more cooperation in scholarships and a number of other areas.

“We want to see technology transfer. We all know the giant that China is and we want to see investments in Zimbabwe or people getting employed, etc. So, that is really what I want to be focusing on,” she said.

Ambassador-designate Makururu, who will be in Indonesia, said President Mnangagwa had directed him to ensure increased co-operation between the two countries.

“We are riding on the mantra as given to us by His Excellency Dr ED Mnangagwa that ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’. Not only are we open, we are ready to do business.

“Indonesia has a population of about 280 million people, which means much, much bigger than Zimbabwe. We are quite happy that His Excellency has indicated the need for us to expand business cooperation with the Republic of Indonesia.

“We want lithium technology (and) we have lithium in the country. What we need is to make sure that we process lithium in this country,” he said.

Ambassador-designate Makururu said Indonesia had indicated a willingness to transfer lithium technology to Zimbabwe.

“Therefore, we should ride on that and make sure that our country benefits from this resource, which is in our midst,” he said.

Meanwhile, outgoing Indian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Vijay Khanduja paid a courtesy call on President Mnangagwa earlier, to bid him farewell.

In an interview afterwards, the Indian diplomat said he was happy with what he had achieved during his mission in Zimbabwe.

“We recently inaugurated the Deka water pipeline and this is a 42km pipeline, which has been made with Indian assistance of US$48 million and it’s providing water not just to the Hwange Thermal Power plant, but also communities and the city on the way,” he said.

“This is a people-centric project, which is benefiting the people and the livestock also. We had two rounds of the foreign office consultations during my tenure, one round of the joint trade committee.

“So we are looking forward to a lot of investment coming from India targeting the health sector. Zimbabwe was the first country to give authorisation for Covaxin in Africa (during the Covid-19 period),” he said.

Mr Khanduja said India provided medicines and ambulances during the Covid-19 times, and invested in water management, agriculture and the education sectors.

“These are some of the sectors I would highlight which are  actually on a roll. Yes, in the medical sector there are investors also who are looking to set a base in Zimbabwe.

“We are giving a cancer machine. This is about to be shipped. The collaboration is not just in the sector of pharmaceuticals and the people going to India to take treatment, but we are bringing niche technologies here also,” he said.

A Memorandum of Understanding on collaboration in sport between the two countries is on the way, said the ambassador.

 

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