Harare: AfricUpdate: News Desk
Zimbabwe is seeking to turn its long-standing friendship with Singapore into stronger economic ties. This was revealed when Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Professor Amon Murwira met with his Singapore counterpart, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, on the sidelines of the 5th Singapore-Africa Ministerial Exchange Visit this Tuesday. For years, Zimbabwe and Singapore have shared warm political relations. The two countries are now exploring ways to build on that goodwill and translate it into tangible business opportunities.
“Zimbabwe and Singapore have excellent political relations, and what we have discussed is to start moving into economic cooperation, building upon that strong foundation. We have sent an MOU to Singapore and we are looking forward to their reply, which the Honourable Minister promised to do in the shortest possible time. We are also working on a bilateral trade agreement that will allow us to do more business between our two countries,” Professor Murwira said. Zimbabwe has already started tapping into the Singaporean horticulture market and earlier this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, through Zimbabwe’s trade promotion body, ZimTrade carried out a market scan in Singapore.
“We sent ZimTrade here in March, and I am happy to report that Zimbabwe is now exporting blueberries to Singapore. Singapore is very advanced in the knowledge economy. They may not have the natural resources that we have, but they have concentrated on innovation. This is extremely useful for us because our heritage-based Education 5.0 promotes innovation for industrialisation,” Professor Murwira stated. Tourism and transport were also part of the agenda and the ministers also discussed the possibility of Singapore Airlines extending its route to Zimbabwe, a move that could boost tourism and trade.
