Story by Stanley James, Business Editor
JAPAN is seeking to deepen partnerships with Zimbabwe in trade and investment, with more high-level bilateral engagements to bolster economic relations lined up this year.
This comes after the Japanese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Nobutaka Maekawa paid a courtesy call on Vice President General Retired Dr Constantino Chiwenga in Harare this Wednesday, where continuous development cooperation, economic relations and high-level bilateral engagements were top of the agenda.
“We discussed more about business-to-business cooperation between the two countries, so we see potential in Zimbabwe in many sectors, for example, in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and infrastructure. In agriculture, we have implemented rice production, so we would also like to continue with this project. We have discussed the implementation of the agreements in agriculture, like coffee, and in the area of human development, we also take note of cooperation in Artificial Intelligence within Zimbabwe’s education sector,” the Ambassador said.
Japan and Zimbabwe are seeking to maintain strong bilateral relations focused on economic development, agriculture projects, and humanitarian and technical cooperation.
Last year, Japan pledged over US$5 billion in new projects and loans for Africa, with Zimbabwe expected to benefit from infrastructure and agricultural development projects.
High-level engagements between Zimbabwe and Japan have also been further strengthened following Zimbabwe’s participation at the Expo 2025 Osaka and the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development.
