Watch: Indonesia seeks deeper economic ties with Zimbabwe, collaboration to tap regional trade opportunities

INDONESIAN Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Arief Hadayat, has expressed his country’s readiness to closely collaborate with Zimbabwe to unlock new investment and trade opportunities across different sectors of the economy to achieve mutually beneficial development gains.

In an exclusive interview on Sunday, Amb Hidayat, who was already in Bulawayo with his business delegation ahead of the commencement of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF 2026) Expo, said although Indonesia and Zimbabwe enjoy cordial bilateral relations, more needs to be done to accelerate economic and investment milestones.

Indonesia is already a key economic partner with some Africa states mainly in North Africa and a few Southern Africa states, mainly South Africa but now seeks more close collaboration with Zimbabwe.

“One of the reasons we opened an embassy in Harare is because our two leaders had very strong relations, even personal reasons from days of Mr Robert Mugabe, and even now the current president looks at Africa as a potential partner,” said Mr Hidayat.

“As I have said Zimbabwe in a unique position geographically, really at the centre of Africa but I can say that in terms of economic relations we still have a lot to do moving into the future,” he added.

“I will start with trading, the capacity building and scholarship for the Zimbabwean students. I just finished our technical discussions with our two permanent secretaries from the ministry of health and agriculture on how to bring the practical of the Indonesian experience in these two sectors.

“We are looking forward to studying more on the intra-regional trade between Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries, this is something else very useful for us to consider opening investments with Zimbabwe.”

Amb Hidayat emphasized that Indonesia was eager to secure mutually beneficial deals with Zimbabwe, and contribute to Government’s vision of transforming livelihoods, being inspired by President Mnangagwa’s mantra: “Zimbabwe is Open for Business”.

“Look, even when Indonesia brings training and capacity, training for Zimbabwe, this is not a donor-recipient relationship, this is partnership, this is a mutual benefit, this is how Indonesia can bring local value,” he said.

“By sharing the Indonesian experience and vision, a very practical one, we believe the local people can easily adopt this kind of Indonesian experience. Let’s start with something like training, then continue with business opportunity and then set up an agreement on how Indonesia can see some of the production process in Zimbabwe with beneficiation in Zimbabwe,” said Amb Hidayat.

“So, it’s not just about exporting and importing or donor recipient relationship but mutual relations.”

Indonesia is among the 29 countries that are exhibiting at this year’s ZITF expo and has brought in some of its companies to explore the Zimbabwean market secure strategic partnerships with local businesses.