NEW DELHI: The Indian government is set to invest in Zimbabwe’s small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) to boost trade between the two countries, which has been skewed in favour of the Asian giant. So far, trade between Zimbabwe and India is $133 million. Last year, the figure was $132,37m. Indian ambassador to Zimbabwe, Rungsung Masakui, told NewsDay on Tuesday his country wanted the trade figures to tilt more in Zimbabwe’s favour, as they were virtually off the market, with the SMEs sector being an area of focus.
“India is completely off the market here in Zimbabwe, but we are making all efforts in areas of the SME sector, agro, manufacturing health and of course the mining sector. We are making more efforts to come into this market. About 40% of our exports are coming from our SME sector and 30% of our gross domestic product is from the sector,” he said.
“Again 45% of our workforce is from our SME sector. Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), which is a parastatal in India, has come in to set up a technology centre at the Harare Institute of Technology, which is still running … which is one of the finest examples of the collaboration between India and Zimbabwe in the SME sector.” HMT Limited is a State-owned manufacturing company under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in India.
Masakui said the partnership would help SMEs learn how to design machinery to help them scale up their businesses. Estimates have placed exports to India at $3,95m from last year’s $690 000, with the rest going in favour of India. According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, 8% of equipment and machinery for the manufacturing sector comes from India. India is the third largest source of raw materials for Zimbabwe at about 5%.
Trade promotion body ZimTrade lists India under “other countries” in terms of the country’s export concentration market after 10 of its biggest export markets. “All of us agree that Zimbabwe is going through difficult times and, of course, our trade relations are much lower than the desired potential we would want it to be, which is just below $133m of which it is skewed in favour of India,” Masakui said.
