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Turkish businesses are keen to invest in the Zimbabwean economy, particularly in agriculture.
This was confirmed by Turkish ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Kadir Hidayet Eris in an interview with The Herald on the sidelines of an official hand over of scholarships to 23 Zimbabwean students recently.
The students would be studying at universities in Turkey.
“Our relationship with Zimbabwe, first of all, depends on the mutual respect of the internal affairs,” he said. “Political dialogues come later as our priority focuses mainly on the economic side of the relationship.”
Mr Eris said Turkey was aware that Zimbabwe was going through difficult economic times and his country was ready to assist.
“We would like to introduce our assistance programme through our agencies like Turkish International Co-operation Agency (TIKA),” he said.
Mr Eris singled out the agricultural sector as an area of interest for his country to invest in Zimbabwe.
“Our main area of interest here is agriculture because of the cotton industry,” he said. “We are good in textile as we are second from China in the world when it comes to textiles.”
Mr Eris said he had already engaged Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made and discussions were underway.
Mr Eris said it was his desire to see Turkish companies investing in their numbers in Zimbabwe.
“Little by little, we intend to increase the presence of Turkish companies here in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We want to create job opportunities.”
Online Reporter