Online Reporter
AS the world’s most populous nation, India is the largest market under the sun.
Zimbabwe exported goods and services worth $46,9m to the Asian country last year, up from $10,4m in 2022. Tobacco was the top export, followed by other farm produce and some minerals.
We imported pharmaceuticals, cereals, machinery, vehicles and plastics worth $189,6m in 2023.
The Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency reported last week that it licensed 31 Indian investments in 2021, 35 in 2022, 61 in 2023 and 91 in 2024.
The construction sector attracted 33 licences, real estate (32), health (31), energy (27), financial services (2), transport (one) and agriculture (one). On a sector-by-sector basis, 128 manufacturing permits were issued since
2020, followed by mining with 103, and information and communication technologies with 53.
Cumulative Indian investments in our country stand at $600m, supporting 15 000 jobs.
We are encouraged by the value of Indian investments already on the ground in our country and the value of the trade, at the same time clear that there remains vast potential to scale up the economic relations between the two economies.
Political, economic and people-to-people ties are longstanding and vibrant, dating as far back as the Munhumutapa era when Indian merchants journeyed inland to trade in textiles, minerals and metals with that great kingdom. The relations were so strong that in the 17th century, Dom Miguel, the heir to the Munhumutapa throne, emigrated and settled in Goa, where an inscribed pillar stands today in a chapel as a record of his stay there, with it the depth of the ties between Zimbabwe and India.
The relationship grew during our liberation war as India backed the fighters, with several of them earning their degrees at various Indian universities.
Cde Kantibhai Gordhanbhai Patel, who played a leading role during the struggle just like the Esats et al, and served in the ruling party’s Politburo after independence, lies at the National Heroes Acre.
There are about 9 000 Zimbabweans of Indian origin.
This long, solid history must be a basis upon which Harare and New Delhi must build a far stronger economic relationship.
The local manufacturing sector must actively scout for opportunities to tap into the 1,46 billion-strong Indian market so our economy can grow export receipts beyond the abysmal $47m it earned last year. Zimbabwean blueberries are the talk of Europe and China; they must be the talk of India, too.
We are a world-class tobacco-growing nation, which can benefit from Indian investment in intensified local processing of the leaf in partial fulfilment of the 2021 Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan.
Beyond trade and investment, Zimbabwe can also benefit through greater skills and technology transfer from India.
The world’s fourth-largest economy, with its booming population and spending power, can be a lucrative tourism source market for Zimbabwe as well.
