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Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter

An Indian delegation with cross-cutting economic interests is in the country to scout for business opportunities with Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga noting that business between India and Zimbabwe has not been commensurate with the excellent relations between the two countries.

The delegation’s visit to Zimbabwe comes after VP Chiwenga led a Zimbabwean delegation to India in June for the 18th Edition of the Conclave on India-Africa Growth-Partnership.

The India-Africa Growth Partnership sought to up step economic interaction between India and African countries.

India’s interest comes at the most opportune moment for Zimbabwe when the Second Republic, under President Mnangagwa, has opened up the economy for investment as a key driver towards rapid economic development for an empowered upper-middle income society by 2030.

The Indian delegation has interests in mining, agriculture, health, real estate, tourism among others.

“The Indian business delegation comes in the wake of my visit last month to India,” said Vice President Chiwenga.

“The business and captains of industry there expressed their desire to come to Zimbabwe and so this was the purpose of the meeting we were having today.”

“The 14-member delegation led by Dr Asif Iqbal, is composed of various sectors of our economy. So, they are now scouting. Some will make their final decisions, some will go back to their drawing boards.

“The delegation again is going to come back in the near future. It is going to be a really big delegation that is going to come back sooner,” said VP Chiwenga.

Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Dr Asif Iqbal president of the Indian Economic Trade Organisation said Zimbabwe has, over the last two years generated a lot of interest and comfort for Indian companies.

Against this background, the Indians said they wanted further collaboration with Zimbabwe in growing and processing millet especially this year which the United Nations has declared the International Year of the Millets (IYM 2023).

“The Vice President was in India during the India-Africa Summit, and during that time there were awards that were given and the Vice President was one of the recipients of the awards for strengthening relations between India and Zimbabwe,” said Dr Iqbal.

“We have made a draft plan for the establishment of the millet park here. The Indian Ambassador has been working on that.

“2023 is the year of the United Nations millet and we would like to see this partnership between India and Zimbabwe mature and we would like to create a millet park.

“We also had meetings with various ministries Agriculture, Mining, Health. Tomorrow the group is going to Bulawayo to explore the hospitality sector, goat farming and from there we are going to Victoria Falls to again explore another hospitality project and real estate.

“Our plans also include having an India-Zimbabwe mining forum in October where we will talk about the new minerals like lithium and it will be a much larger delegation,” said Dr Iqbal.