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Tendai Mugabe in NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania
Zimbabwe is spreading re-engagement tentacles to all parts of the world and yesterday President Mnangagwa despatched two special envoys to the Netherlands and Germany to seek ways of enhancing relations in various areas of mutual understanding.

The re-engagement drive is in line with President Mnangagwa’s mantra that Zimbabwe is open for business and his visionary target of creating a middle income economy by 2030.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo told journalists here that after the AU Summit, he will be heading to Amsterdam, while his counterpart Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa would be going to Berlin as President Mnangagwa’s special envoys.

Minister Moyo said he will address a Dutch business forum in the Netherlands and Zimbabweans based there.
“As you are aware things are moving,” said Dr Moyo. “The re-engagement process is a moving target. As far as we are concerned, it cannot be stopped.

“After this AU conference, I shall be proceeding to the Netherlands specifically as a special envoy. But as I go there, we are expecting that I will then address a business forum of the Dutch community and I will also have an opportunity to address Zimbabweans who are based in the Netherlands.

“Equally so, my colleague Minister Chinamasa is going to be proceeding to Germany, again as a special envoy. So, we are proceeding and all what we are waiting for is the harvesting of our re-engagement process.”

Dr Moyo said the Netherlands was an important stakeholder in Zimbabwe’s horticultural sector and the Dutch country should reclaim its position.

In pursuit of this initiative, Dr Moyo said Zimbabwe would host a horticultural expo in September where the Netherlands would play a crucial role.

“The Netherlands has been a major player in Zimbabwe before and we are saying that they must come back and have that meaningful role,” said Dr Moyo.

“Some time in September we are going to host a horticultural expo in Zimbabwe, one of the biggest ones and basically it is the genesis of horticulture production in Zimbabwe so that we can then generate our exports into the European market, of course being led by the Netherlands itself.”

Recently, Dr Moyo visited the United Kingdom on a similar mission where he met British authorities to explore ways of normalising relations that had been frosty for more than a decade.

During his visit, Dr Moyo made significant headway that saw the CDC which is the UK’s development finance institution extending a US$100 million facility to Zimbabwean companies in the private sector.