Zim reaping fruits of economic diplomacy

THE growth in bilateral trade volumes and growing business synergies between Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is evidence that the global community is responding positively to the economic diplomacy drive being pursued by the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa, a senior official said.

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the UAE, Lovemore Mazemo, said this in an interview on Monday, in which he also expressed excitement over the efforts being expended by the country towards diversifying its economy and seeking to expand its export market footprint to the Middle East region.

He said the establishment of embassies by the UAE and Zimbabwe in each other’s territories had deepened bilateral relations within a short space of time, which has seen the two countries forge strategic development partnerships.

The UAE opened its embassy in Harare in 2019 and Zimbabwe followed suit by opening its embassy in the Middle East country in 2021.

“Since then all we have been doing is business and nothing else. The economic diplomacy thrust is the only meaningful thrust on this market and it’s working.

“We are here for entrepreneurship and for business and that is our goal,” said Amb Mazemo.

“We have already pointed out that in terms of trade between our two countries, the UAE has already become our second biggest trading partner after our neighbour, South Africa.

“As of 2020 the trade figures were up to US$1,4 billion. About 80 percent of that trade consists of gold and diamonds, 10 percent is tobacco and the rest of other products are sharing 10 percent.

“Yes, the Covid-19 pandemic might have crippled trade but I am sure we can bounce back.”

The country’s participation at the on-going Expo 2020 Dubai, has added more impetus to marketing of locally produced goods and services to the whole world, said Ambassador Mazemo.

Zimbabwe is already supplying high value agriculture products to Dubai such as macadamia nuts, avocadoes, various types of berries, citrus fruits and bananas among others.

The UAE, which is a net importer of food, has also expressed desire to partner Zimbabwe in the agriculture value chain.

“Expo 2020 Dubai has offered us a great opportunity, it’s like a great launching pad for us to market ourselves in this market,” said Ambassador Mazemo.
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“We have a huge potential to bring our fresh produce into this market and so it’s critical that we cultivate our agri-business sector particularly our horticulture sector.

“We already have some of our products coming and a lot of them are appearing on the shelves and I must say because of their taste and quality they are appearing on the upmarket shops, which is a plus for us.”

Given such positive sentiment, Zimbabwe is now seized with tackling key challenges, which also present significant opportunities, said the Ambassador Mazemo.

“First of all we are still small on our supply side and we need to grow up and we are going to grow. At this stage in the short term it’s important for our producers to aggregate their produce and supply so that they can come into this market in a big way,” he said.

“But going forward we are also looking at possibilities of getting investors from this market who can come and either do contract farming and some would want to come to Zimbabwe and do farming with us so that we increase our volumes.”

In order to unlock this potential, the Cabinet has approved the establishment of a US$20 million horticulture revolving fund, which Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said will be funded from the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights disbursement to Zimbabwe.

Prof Ncube has also visited the UAE quite a few times in the past and engaged with stakeholders over business opportunities offered by this window.

“The third challenge is shipment or transportation and logistics of bringing our goods into the market. At the moment we have the Emirates airline, which does our cargo movement.

“We also have the port in Maputo, Beira and Durban but of course for fresh produce we want our goods to be in the market as early as possible so that they land on time to have a long shelf life,” added Ambassador Mazemo.

He stressed the need to enhance cost efficiencies to ensure adequate and reasonable price competitiveness of local goods on the export market.

With the Expo 2020 Dubai coming to an end this month, Ambassador Mazemo said the embassy would continue to work hard to push to fruition several deals and expressions of interest secured during the exhibition.-The Herald