6 envoys present credentials
SIX new ambassadors to Zimbabwe presented their credentials to President Mnangagwa at State House yesterday and pledged to cooperate with the new Government in various economic fields.
First to present her credentials was Australia’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Bronte Moules.
She said she was hopeful of creating productive relationships between the two countries.
“I am very pleased to take up my assignment here in Zimbabwe. I am looking forward to this chapter which I hope will be very productive with more opportunities, so I am looking forward pursuing that and we will obviously follow the elections with interest and look forward to developing our relations.
“We have very strong historical links between Australia and Zimbabwe. We have very strong links between our people; there are over 40 000 Zimbabweans there, but we have some complementarities in our economy and areas of the economy in particular mining, agriculture and education so there is a lot of potential in this relationship and I am looking forward to working on it,” Ambassador Moules said.
The new envoy from Ghana, Mr Eric Odoi-Anim, said the two countries should improve economic ties.
“The areas of cooperation between Ghana and Zimbabwe are likely to be in the economic field. We want to build our mutual human resources capacity so that we will stop relying on external forces in terms of the needs of our two countries,” he said.
“We need a cadre of people who understand the nuances of international business and we need to collaborate between our respective private sectors.
“We are looking at the areas of tourism, mining and areas of the economy we can support each other in terms of growth.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Gershon Kedar, expressed willingness to assist Zimbabwe in agriculture and water management.
“My job now is to meet ministers to discuss areas of priority where Israel and Zimbabwe can cooperate. I think particular areas are agriculture and water where we have great success in Israel creating a country which is mainly a desert to be a blooming green country.
“We are happy to share experiences, share technologies and share know-how,” he said.
Hungary’s new Ambassador Mr Andras Lazslo Kiraly congratulated President Mnangagwa and for assuming office.
“I conveyed message of congratulations from the president of Hungary to the Zimbabwean President and Government and we wish them success in developing democracy and business.
“We are working on two fields and one of them is higher education and training. We are offering as Hungary scholarships to Zimbabwean students to come to our country and come back engineers, scientists, teachers and so on.
“We believe that this will bring together our people and education is the main strategic field we have identified to build relations,” Ambassador Kiraly said.
He also said he would facilitate exchange visits between Hungary and Zimbabwe businesses.
The first ever ambassador from the Central Africa Republic, Mr Andre Nzapayeke, commended Zimbabweans for the manner in which they changed their Government.
“It’s a great honour to be the first ambassador of CAR to Zimbabwe and we hope to achieve a lot.
“This country has a history, lots of opportunities and has gone through its problems, but you have been able to manage all these problems properly, intelligently and this evidence of a people who are matured,” he said.
“The maturity of Zimbabweans and the strengths of the people of Zimbabwe we need to learn from all this. You are getting into a new era and we also have gone through many difficulties and we are trying to achieve peace and we are starting to rebuild our country almost from scratch.”
Belarus’ new ambassador, Mr Alexander Sidoruk, said his country wanted to expand current areas of cooperation between the two countries.
“We have a lot of plans and we closely followed the changes in your country and we welcome them.
“We already have joint projects to assist you in developing your mining industry, your agriculture, your industrial complex,” he said.
“We have these technologies, machinery, know how.
“Several projects have already been started, several are at the final stage of negotiations so we are ready as a friendly country to assist in Zimbabwe in their new developments.”