Japan ready to increase trade relations with Zimbabwe

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APAN has expressed readiness to increase trade relations with Zimbabwe, but urged the government to fully engage all stakeholders

JAPAN has expressed readiness to increase trade relations with Zimbabwe, but urged the government to fully engage all stakeholders and the international community in order to find common ground to the problems facing the country.

BY PATRICE MAKOVA

Japanese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yonezo Fukuda told The Standard at celebrations to mark the birthday of Emperor Akihito last Thursday, that it was important that the government talks with everyone, including the private sector and those with different ideas to it.

“It is important to talk to all stakeholders because they have different knowledge and experiences which can help move the country forward,” he said.

Fukuda said in order to attract investors and boost the economy, the government had to come up with a concrete and clear policy that clearly spelt out the direction the country was taking.

He said the recently launched Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset) was not yet clear to many including the international community.

He said Japan placed great importance to Zimbabwe — which is strategically located at the centre of Sadc and links the whole region through the railway, road and power networks.

Official development assistance from Japan to Zimbabwe in the past five years amounted to US$76 million.

In June this year, Japan announced an assistance package to African countries at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad V).

The package is about US$32 bil- lion in public-private initiatives, including about US$14 billion in official development assistance over next five years.