Story by Bruce Chahwanda, Political Editor
TRADE between Zimbabwe and Indonesia has hit US$93 million in the last four years with tobacco being the major export crop to Indonesia.
This emerged when the Indonesia Ambassador to Zimbabwe bade farewell to President Emmerson Mnangagwa this Wednesday at State House in Harare.
In bidding farewell to President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House in Harare this Wednesday, outgoing Indonesian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Dewa Juniarta Sastrawan emphasised the work being done between the two countries.
He said trade growth has been a major highlight of his tenure in Zimbabwe with plans underway to find ways of cooperation in lithium for his country’s automotive industry.
“When I came here in 2019, our trade volume was only US$60 million, but now, last year, it was US$93 million. The good thing about this trade is more exports from Zimbabwe to Indonesia. We import a lot of tobacco and cotton from Zimbabwe and we use good-quality tobacco from Zimbabwe to blend our cigarettes. We also succeeded in having cooperation between Indonesia and Zimbabwe on how to produce fertiliser in Zimbabwe. There’s already one company producing fertiliser using Indonesian technology. We hope that this will increase the volume and then we can help Zimbabwe to support the food security programme.
“In agriculture, we also donate 1 000 frozen cement for five types of cattle here. We would like to use future cooperation to use this artificial insemination to support Zimbabwe in food security and lithium processing. The reason why we would like to cooperate on processing lithium with Zimbabwe is because, in Indonesia, we already started producing electric car batteries and also motorcycle batteries, which is when we produce this battery, we have nickel, but we don’t have lithium.”
Kenyan Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Her Excellency Stella Munyi also bade farewell to President Mnangagwa and described relations between Kenya and Zimbabwe as excellent.
She also noted the participation of companies from Kenya at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) as a way of cementing the bilateral relations between the two countries.
“My bilateral relations are excellent. I have managed to build them for the years I have been here. I have had our Joint Permanent Commission for Cooperation. When I came here, we had the last one in 1989, but during my tenure, we had the third session in 2021 and 2024. I’m looking forward to a midterm review this year. I have also had high-level visits with His Excellency President Mnangagwa visiting Nairobi four times. I’ve also had my President come here. He was here last year in the opening of the ZITF.
“So the other highlight is the increased frequency of our Kenya Airways, which is the Pride of Africa. We have frequencies of 16 from Nairobi-Harare and also four from Nairobi-Victoria Falls. This has enhanced not only our trade but also tourism. I have highlighted to His Excellency that they had a successful meeting about the DRC issue, and this shows that they are committed to the issues of peace, not only here regionally, but also continentally. I will continue visiting, not now, even in the future. We are there to champion the complete removal of sanctions by the West, as well as the re-admission of Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth.”
Zimbabwe continues to engage different countries as a way of boosting trade in various sectors of the economy.
