Zimbabwe Vice President Calls For Speedy Implementation of Partnerships With Indian Firms

Zimbabwe Vice President Joice Mujuru has called for the rapid implementation of economic agreements with India. Zimbabwe has an explicit policy of developing trade relations with African, Asian and Latin American states., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Call for speedy implementation of partnerships with Indian firms

Monday, 26 March 2012 00:00
From Walter Muchinguri in Pune, India
Zimbabwe Herald

VICE President Joice Mujuru wound up her visit to India yesterday by emphasising the need to move with speed in implementing partnerships with Indian companies to unlock investment from the Asian country.

During her stay in India, Vice President Mujuru had an opportunity to visit a number of multinational companies owned by the Indian government.

The companies are involved in engineering and manufacturing of an assortment of machinery that are key to the success of Zimbabwe’s economic revival.

The machinery included heavy duty mining equipment, rail and metro rolling stock, irrigation and farming equipment and mini and mega agro-processing plants.

VP Mujuru said that it was critical for ministries involved in all the sectors linked to these companies to move with speed to prepare proposals that are needed to help unlock funding for their technologies to be transferred to Zimbabwe.

She said in her meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Vice President Dr Mohammad Hamid Ansari and Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles Mr Anand Sharma she got the message that India was ready to work with Zimbabwe for the development of the country.

“We reaffirmed that we have the same political backgrounds and what we need now is to cement those political links and deepen our economic partnerships to improve the well-being of our people.

“What we need to do now is to look closely at what India has done that Zimbabwe has not done in-order to reach India’s level of economic development,” she said.

She said Minister Sharma was, however, worried that Zimbabwe was still taking it easy yet it was a developing country that had all the fundamentals required for economic growth.