Zim intensifies re-engagement efforts

President Mnangagwa has dispatched two special envoys to the Netherlands and Germany as Harare  intensifies its re-engagement agenda, a Cabinet Minister has said.

The emphasis on re-engagement has been met with goodwill as the global community has shown eagerness to mend relations with Zimbabwe which  soured due to differences over the expropriation of prime agricultural land from the minority whites for re-distribution of land to the black  majority.

The differences led to, among other things, a massive decline in  foreign direct investment from those countries opposed to the land  reform programme.

But in a show of confidence in the new administration, most Western  countries including Britain, have sent envoys to Zimbabwe to rekindle  the long lost relationship.

Zimbabwe has also re-applied to rejoin the Commonwealth grouping,  having withdrawn its membership as tensions heightened.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Lieutenant General  Sibusiso Moyo (Rtd) told Zimbabwean media on the margins of the African  Union mid-term summit here that he would be travelling to Netherlands  while Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa had  been dispatched to Germany.

“Things are moving, the re-engagement process is moving fast.

“The  re-engagement target is a moving target as far as we are concerned, it cannot be stopped,” he said.

“Just after this AU conference I am proceeding to the Netherlands specifically as a special envoy.

“As I go there we are hoping that I will  address a business forum of Dutch business community and I also hope to have an opportunity to address Zimbabweans based in Netherlands.”

Lt Gen Moyo (Rtd) said the re-engagement agenda was bearing fruits.

“We are pushing and all that we can wait for is the harvest of our  re-engagement,” he said.

Moyo has also visited several other countries in Europe in pursuance of  the re-engagement agenda.

Recently he was in England and Belgium where he met those countries’s top political leaders who all pledged their support for the new  administration in Zimbabwe. — New Ziana.