Zim to partner Qatar

Peter Matambanadzo Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe and Qatar will soon sign several bilateral agreements in agriculture and tourism among other sectors to stimulate trade and political relations. In an interview after paying a courtesy call on Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made on Thursday, newly appointed Qatari Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber, said a technical team from his country would visit Zimbabwe to study areas of possible co-operation.
“Qatar has good relations with Zimbabwe and we talked about the road map on agriculture, tourism, investment and other things,” he said.

Mr Al-Jaber said agriculture was important to Qatar and the Gulf region, which does not have much arable land.
“As you know Zimbabwe is rich, it has land and water and we need to send a technical team to Zimbabwe to study how we can help each other,” he said. “We want to move on the basis of excellent political relations.” Dr Made said Zimbabwe should export agricultural produce to Qatar and the wider Middle East.

“To lay the basis of a road map that we want to develop urgently dealing with issues of agriculture, we should maintain and exploit this advantage of producing non-genetically modified produce ranging from livestock or animal protein to plant or crop protein as well,” he said.

Dr Made said crops like cereals, horticultural produce, cotton and tobacco presented export opportunities.
“We have agreed that what is important is to urgently receive a technical mission from Qatar so that we are able to indicate to them the various activities we are undertaking and the potential we have,” he said. “This is the first step we have agreed and to materialise a memorandum of understanding that will be signed between the two countries.”