MINSK, 11 September (BelTA) - Belarusian exports to Zimbabwe have gone up eight times over the past five years, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Parkhomchik said in an interview to Belarus 1 TV channel.
The deputy prime minister visited Zimbabwe after the recent presidential election, which was won by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime friend and partner of Belarus.
“There is a successful pilot project on Zimbabwe, which we have been implementing for the past ten years. We can say that the result is good – the exports have increased eight times in the last five years. Belarus has delivered 48 fire engines to Zimbabwe. By the end of the year, 131 vehicles will be delivered, they are now in various stages of delivery. Contracts have been signed for the supply of 3,161 tractors, 80 harvesters, and we are starting to fulfill these contracts by the end of the year. We plan to meet these goals in 2023-2025. We have also reached agreements on the supply of grain drying complexes there. Zimbabwe is also interested in cooperation in science and education. We are open in this matter and we are always in a dialogue,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.
In his words, the First Lady of Zimbabwe discussed medicine, science and education during her visit to Belarus, and the programs worked out were under constant supervision.
The vice premier explained that the African market was not an easy destination, first of all because of logistics, as well as the difference in traditions and the level of development of the countries of the continent. “The market is very complex, first of all in terms of the level of education of the people who will need to operate our equipment. If we take the pilot project on Zimbabwe, our excellent center has been set up there, it provides a whole range of services for all types of machinery we supply. This is a single center of Belarusian enterprises, where you can get education in vehicle management, necessary recommendations, purchase component parts, services for performing routine maintenance on our equipment. We both perform this work ourselves and engage local people in it. Our consumer support center employs some ten local workers who are gradually acquiring these skills. We hope that soon we will perform the control function, and they will work on the machinery,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.