ED leaves for 5-country tour President Mnangagwa

Mabasa Sasa, Harare Bureau
President Mnangagwa early this morning left for Russia on the first leg of a whirlwind five-country tour that will take him across Eurasia, and then to Switzerland, as part of his international engagement and re-engagement drive.

The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces will in coming days hold high-level talks in Moscow, Astana (Kazakhstan), Minsk (Belarus), Baku (Azerbaijan) and Davos (Switzerland).

The first four stops are within the context of bilateral engagements, while in Switzerland the President will head Zimbabwe’s delegation to the World Economic Forum.

This will mark the second time the country participates at the WEF following last year’s debut attendance after President Mnangagwa declared Zimbabwe was open for business.

The visits to Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Belarus — on the other hand — embody the engagement and re-engagement thrust that has characterised President Mnangagwa’s foreign policy since November 2017.

Zimbabwe has long-standing political ties with Russia, and the drive now is to unlock the economic value that a partnership with a global power offers a country that seeks to establish an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

Relations with Belarus have been growing in recent years, most notably from the time then Vice-President Mnangagwa engaged investors in Minsk in 2015, and this year’s visit to that country will add momentum to the blossoming co-operation.

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are “virgin” territory when it comes to economic ties with Zimbabwe.

Harare established diplomatic ties with Astana and Baku in 2008 and all the parties feel establishment of solid economic ties is overdue.

With a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and a Zimbabwe-Russia Joint Commission already established, Moscow provides a “known quantity” as far as inter-nation ties are concerned.

One of the major issues on the table when President Mnangagwa meets Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will be the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project, a joint mining and beneficiation venture.

Launched in 2014 under the previous regime, President Mnangagwa’s new administration wants to give impetus to a project that had stalled but is now ready to become productive.

According to information at hand, the feasibility study for phase one was presented mid-last year, and that segment of the project is expected to be completed in early 2019.

Phase one will cover building of the plant, and surface and supporting infrastructure at a cost of US$500 million.

Phase two has been scheduled for March 2019 to October 2030, and will include construction and commissioning of a smelter as the mine churns out 16 tonnes of ore.

Under the third phase (2030-2039), production should increase to 25 tonnes.

Besides platinum, the Darwendale claim holds gold, nickel, copper, palladium and rhodium.

The leaders of Zimbabwe and Russia, and their delegations, will also grapple with issues pertaining to the stalled DTZ-OZGEO partnership, which has interests in mining and agriculture; use of the Yamal 402 satellite; tourism promotion; mining equipment; technical co-operation and energy.

Other major highlights are the interest of Alrosa – which accounts for 28 percent of global diamond extraction – in coming into Zimbabwe; and capacitation of the recently-launched Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency.

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