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Target Shumba Herald Correspondent
Zimbabwe and Ethiopia can benefit from each other’s experiences since the two countries’ economic turnaround blueprints have a lot in common, an official has said.

Speaking at a belated reception to mark the 24th anniversary of the Ethiopian National Day and the demise of the country’s military dictatorship, the Ethiopian ambassador Dr Koang Tutlam Dung said for its part, Ethiopia was putting measures to establish business linkages between the two countries.

He said there were many commodities and products for bilateral trade between Harare and Addis Ababa, but despite the huge potential, there have been limited commercial and business connections over the years.

Zimbabwe launched the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) in 2013 to drive its economic turnaround, while Ethiopia came up with the First Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP 1) last year.

“There are many commodities and products that we can trade among us,” Ambassador Dung said.

“We can also benefit from each other’s experience since the Zim-Asset has many commonalities with Ethiopia’s GTP 1.

“To this effect, the embassy is doing its utmost to bridge this gap by linking the businesses of the two countries through participating in the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, Sanganai/Hlanganani, as well as the Harare International Carnival in the last two years,” he said.

Dr Dung said the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, had recently visited Ethiopia to share experiences with his Ethiopian counterpart and that a memorandum of understanding on tourism was in the pipeline.

He said Zimbabwe and Ethiopia shared a long history of cooperation dating back to the liberation struggle against white minority rule during which Ethiopia provided training and logistics to freedom fighters.

Dr Dung said the cordial relations had continued following Zimbabwe’s attainment of Independence in 1980, adding that the late Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, was a great admirer of President Mugabe, and the two leaders used “to exchange notes on issues affecting Africa and the world at large.”

He said the mutual relations had continued to date.

To demonstrate this strong bond between the two countries, Dr Dung said his country’s flagship carrier, Ethiopian Airlines had not pulled out from operating its flights to Harare during Zimbabwe’s hyper inflationary period.

“Even during the hard time of hyper inflation in Zimbabwe, Ethiopian Airlines did not close doors when many of its peers were running away,” he said.

“It stayed put because it could not abandon a valuable friend such as Zimbabwe due to a temporary problem.

“Thus, a friend in need is a friend in deed.”

The Ethiopian National Day falls on May 28, and the function was attended by senior Government officials, Harare mayor councillor Bernard Manyenyeni, members of the diplomatic corps, the business community and representatives from civil society.