Story by Stanley James
ZIMBABWE and Belarus have set sights on increasing trade and investment riding on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent visit to the Eastern Europe nation.
A recent four-day visit to Belarus by President Emmerson Mnangagwa created a platform for Zimbabwe to explore new areas of cooperation.
The Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Professor Mthuli Ncube had an engagement with the Government officials from Belarus where trade and investment talks took centre stage.
“The entire discussions culminated in agreements towards strengthening trade and investment, so basically the talks were cordial and led to us focusing or opening a new chapter for Zimbabwe to learn from Belarus on possible strategic ways of boosting cooperation,” he said.
The Treasury Chief described the talks as setting the tone for increased cooperation.
“The talks opened another milestone in further assessing the needs of Zimbabwe and Belarus including identifying new areas of cooperation as well as concluding on more engagements to boost trade and investment going forward,” he added.
High-level visits and continuous engagements in forums between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko have been important in shaping the trajectory of excellent bilateral relations.
The Zimbabwe-Belarus relations continue to reach new highs following the provision of agricultural equipment such as tractors to enhance the local agricultural sector. In addition to strengthened relations between the two countries in the agricultural sector, Belarus has also shown commitment to invest in Zimbabwe’s health sector.
