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President Mugabe welcomes incoming Irish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Lian MacGabhann, while Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Joey Bimha look on at State House in Harare yesterday. —(Picture by Tawanda Mudimu)

Felex Share Senior Reporter
President Mugabe yesterday told three incoming diplomats that Zimbabwe had a lot of space and investment opportunities, which foreign countries can capitalise on through mutual cooperation.

The three diplomats from India, Serbia and Ireland were enlightened on the investment opportunities when they presented their credentials to President Mugabe at State House.

Serbia’s new ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Bozin Nikolic, said his country was keen to forge cooperation in various areas such as information and communication technology.

“I am happy to present my credentials and this is a historic moment in our relations,” he said. “I am happy that I met the leader, our friend President Mugabe. We have been talking about our relations and he highlighted that there is a lot of space and possibilities that we can work on to strengthen our relations further, especially in the economic sphere. That is very important to us. I am so pleased to have met some dignitaries here and I am looking forward to have some more meetings with them dedicated to the future economic cooperation between the two countries.”

Mr Nikolic added: “We also talked about scholarships. Currently there are 250 students from various African countries who are studying in Serbia and Zimbabwe can also increase the number of students to study under full scholarship from my country.”

Ireland representative in Zimbabwe Mr Liam MacGabhann, said focus would be on health and agricultural area, especially the dairy sector.

“We have a strong historical relationship and we have three areas of focus in Zimbabwe,” he said.

“We have a very significant development programme through which we can support Government and develop the health sector. We have a lot of business interests in this country and we want to try those businesses and trade between Ireland and Zimbabwe. There is potential in the dairy sector. We have a very significant and well developed diary sector and we are looking at this Southern African region as a potential market for Irish products and indeed investment to create employment.”

Indian ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Masakui Rungsung said: “I have just presented my credentials and my mission would be to intensify our relations. We want the relations to be improved in all areas be it political, commercial, social and cultural sectors. We have a number of projects and exchanges going on between the two countries and these have to be taken to a higher level.”

India is already cooperating with Zimbabwe in the energy and SMEs sector where it has provided with machinery to some local institutions.