Zim-UAE Business Forum opens

Farirai Machivenyika

Senior Reporter

The third Zimbabwe-United Arab Business Forum opened in Harare yesterday with business leaders from the UAE expressing confidence in expanding the ever-growing business ties between the two countries.

Trade promotion body ZimTrade organised the forum in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Secretary General of the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mr Humaid Mohamed Ben Salem was satisfied with the growth of economic ties since the inaugural forum in 2022.

“This is the third business forum we have had between Zimbabwe and the UAE. We are here to promote the two private sectors between Zimbabwe and the UAE and we are looking at opportunities to invest in both countries, especially in agriculture and food processing.

“There are more companies from UAE which are now looking at Zimbabwe and there are more companies from Zimbabwe which are looking at expanding into UAE. Their number is increasing and the bilateral trade is increasing,” Mr Ben Salem said.

Most of those attending the forum are drawn from the horticultural sector and related value chains.

The director agri commodities at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Mr Saeed Ahmed Juma Alsuwaidi said his organisation was interested in tea and coffee trade between the two countries.

“I represent Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre, a government entity that is run as a private company. We have two major entities that I manage the agricultural arm and these are the DMCC tea sector and the DMCC coffee sector. We manage the movement of these two commodities from where they are produced in the world to Dubai and from Dubai to the world.

“We understand that there has been challenges with both these commodities in Zimbabwe and we are working with both governments to increase the commodity flow from Zimbabwe to Dubai and open up new markets as well. So, what we are looking for here in Zimbabwe is engaging at the farmer level and then the trader level up to Dubai,” Mr Alsuwaidi said.

Trade between Zimbabwe and the UAE has grown to over US$3 billion in the last five years making the UAE Zimbabwe’s second largest trading partner.

Zimbabwe exports to the UAE are mainly agricultural commodities that include tobacco, blue berries and other horticultural crops and minerals such as gold and diamonds.

Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ambassador Albert Chimbindi said trade was central to Zimbabwe’s achievement of its development goals.

“The UAE is Zimbabwe’s second largest trading partner and trade between the two countries has been growing steadily over the past years from 2014 to 2023. This is a welcome development as it aligns with Zimbabwe’s aspiration of becoming an upper middle-income society by 2030 and trade is central to the achievement of this target,” Ambassador Chimbindi said.

ZimTrade Chief Executive Officer, Mr Allan Majuru said: “The quality of Zimbabwean products is driving demand across the world, including in Dubai and the Zimbabwe-UAE Business Forum will diversify and boost exports into UAE.”