ED interfaces with youths today

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is today expected to interface with thousands of youths at the inaugural National Youth Indaba, Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry has said.

The interface will take place at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) under the theme ‘’My Future is Today’’.

The indaba started yesterday with thousands of youths thronging the HICC where they shared their concerns which include youth empowerment among others.

Speaking on the sidelines of the indaba, Minister Coventry said President Mnangagwa is expected to have some dialogue with the young people today.

“The President will be part of us tomorrow (today) and there will be some dialogue with the young people. The youths raised some real concerns and solutions which they feel they need to share with their President.

“As the minister, I am really excited about this. I have been speaking to many youth groups here and I am glad the youths will be sharing with the President. It will all not be about concerns alone; the youths will proffer solutions to those concerns and share them with the President,” she said.

Minister Coventry said more than 200 youths from all the provinces are expected today to meet and dialogue with the Head of State.

“We are expecting more than 200 youths tomorrow. As a ministry, we have supplied transportation to all the provinces which will ferry the youths so they can share their opinions, con

FIVE newly-appointed ambassadors yesterday presented their credentials to President Mnangagwa and pledged to take their relations with Zimbabwe to higher levels by focusing on commercial diplomacy.

The envoys are from China (Mr Guo Shaochun), Portugal (Mr Miguel Calheiros), Thailand (Mr Komate Kamalanavin), Indonesia (Mr Dewa Juniarta Sastrawan) and Qatar (Mr Abdulla Jaber).

Mr Guo said Sino-Zimbabwe relations, which have a comprehensive strategic partnership status, will continue to flourish with much attention being paid to economic and trade.

“Today, we are enjoying our time on our relationship and we have made great achievements on the practical cooperation,” he said.

“We are confident that we will have more successful cooperation in the future. We have very strong political mutual trust and we support each other. I think you have already seen a series of important projects being complemented and successfully launched.”

He added that China was ready to support Zimbabwe with food aid this year saying “we are two friends, brothers and partner and so we have the pleasure to give assistance.”

China and Zimbabwe have agreements cutting across various economic sectors which are being implemented while some have already been commissioned.

Mr Jaber said his major task was ensuring the deals sealed when President Mnangagwa visited Qatar last year bear fruits.

“My duty is to follow on the deals that were discussed when your President visited Qatar last year,” he said.

“We were discussing (with President Mnangagwa) on the exchanges of delegations and specialists in those areas. Hopefully, we can reach our goal of making some joint ventures especially in the areas of investment and trade.

“This is the relationship between countries these days. Our countries have good political relations and we now have to enhance our relations economically.”

Possible areas of cooperation with the Gulf Nation are in the field of education, energy, infrastructure and tourism.

Mr Sastrawan said the support Zimbabwe gave to Indonesia in its bid for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council was evidence of thriving relations.

“We have very well-established political relations and the support of Zimbabwe in our bid articulate that relationship,” he said.

“It is now time to reap rewards from this political relationship and enhance economic relations.

“We discussed with the President how we will work on that. We talked about our project that is in the pipeline and how we will increase economic cooperation, trade and investment.

“We import a lot of cotton here because we are into textiles. In future we want to see how then we can do more. We also want to increase cooperation in mining. We also want to import some minerals from Zimbabwe.”

Thailand’s new envoy, Mr Kamalanavin, said: “I told the President that our countries have established diplomatic relations for 34 years. The relations have been very cordial and friendly, but I think we both need to find potential to expand relations in all sectors . . . This is a very beautiful country and we should not only connect at government level, but also people-to-people level.

“We welcome you to visit our country and we want to bring in more Thai people to visit your country. We have a very bright future together.”

Mr Calheiros said he was coming to enhance bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Portugal.

“I will do my best. I am beginning to love your country, to learn about the people and in the next weeks I hope to have more knowledge.”