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Cletus Mushanawani
PRESIDENT Mugabe arrived back home yesterday ahead of a special Politburo meeting today which is set to discuss problems besetting the ruling Zanu-PF party after contested provincial elections in Manicaland, Midlands and Mashonaland West.
President Mugabe was away for 10 days and his visit saw him attending his daughter, Bona’s graduation in Singapore before proceeding to the two-day Arab-African Summit in Kuwait. He made a two-day stop-over in Dubai before proceeding home.
President Mugabe was met at the Harare International Airport by Vice-President, Cde Joice Mujuru, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Cde Didymus Mutasa, Minister of Defence, Dr Sydney Sekeramayi, service chiefs and senior Government officials.
In Singapore, President Mugabe witnessed Bona graduating with a Master of Science in Management degree specialising in Banking and Finance.
President Mugabe also addressed the Arab-African Summit where he called on African countries to resist the continuous export of primary products and raw materials to feed the industrial needs of the West.
“The unbalanced North/South co-operation, an extension of the colonial system, has demonstrated repeated failures, especially for developing countries, which only got ‘developed’ on the prescription and dictates of the West,” he said.
“The economic pattern, which our regions should resist, has been the continuous export of primary products and raw materials to feed the industrial needs of the West. It is my fervent hope that the Africa-Arab partnership can and should be utilised as an instrument to enhance trade and investment to the levels that reflect the strong cultural ties, our geographic proximity and the tremendous potential that exists within and between our two regions. That way, we will also be economically empowering our people.”
President Mugabe also met delegations from the Independent Petroleum Group, Agility Company and Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
Director-General of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, Mr Abdulwahab Al-Bader on Wednesday said they were expecting to resume cooperation with Zimbabwe as early as January in priority projects like infrastructure, social and health.
He said they were also looking at financing road and railway construction projects in Zimbabwe.
“Our co-operation with Zimbabwe over the past 10 to 15 years was affected by economic hardships as well as embargos which resulted in the country failing to repay its loans. We have discussed the issue with President Mugabe and we have signed an agreement with the Minister of Finance to reschedule the debt and Zimbabwe no longer owes me anything. Zimbabwe has promised to send detailed proposals for grants to support technical studies of some of the projects it intends to embark on and we will look at how we can fund them,” said Mr Al-Bader.
The chairman and managing director of one of the world’s leading providers of integrated logistics company, Agility, Mr Tarek Sultan, said Zimbabwe was an ideal investment destination because of its good infrastructure.
“We do business in about 100 countries and we are growing our presence in Africa where we have business interests in 30 countries. Zimbabwe has a good potential to develop its tourism, aviation and transport industries and these are some of the areas we will be looking into for investments.
“Zimbabwe’s relationship with Asia is one area we also need to tap into because a lot of goods are being moved between Zimbabwe and Asia,” he said.
Online Reporter