Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Jonathan Wutawunashe
3 February 2007
interview
Harare — ZIMBABWE pronounced the Look East Policy to strengthen synergies with its all-weather friends in the Eastern Hemisphere who have stood by it throughout the decolonisation process. Special bonds have been struck with the rising giant, China, as can be seen in investments in the business sector, in road and air transport. The Herald caught up with Zimbabwe's Ambassador to India, JONATHAN WUTAWUNASHE in New Delhi to find out the role being played by yet another giant -- the Republic of India -- in the Look East Policy, among other issues.
Ambassador, you are in your fourth year in India, can you briefly tell our readers the extent of bilateral relations?
Since my arrival in 2003, I have been encouraged to see growing interaction and reciprocity between our two countries. There is growing knowledge about each other as we identify complementarities that can support socio-economic collaboration. India has been forthcoming in supporting countries, including Zimbabwe, and we have seen an enhancement in numerical terms of imparting knowledge through courses which for India, is an area of especial importance in that human resource development has made industrial development possible through medium type to highly sophisticated models of industrialisation.
This has been one of the most impressive aspects for me that I have seen that in the employment of technology -- there is entry level technology, there is middle-level technology, there is high-level technology at the level of the knowledge society, which makes it easier to bridge the rural-urban divide. It's a model that is very much akin to what we ourselves have adopted when we look at the operations: Industrial, business operations. We adopted the growth point approach which is really very much akin to this, where you want to bring similar amenities; it may not be identical but similar amenities to the rural sector that are available in urban areas. This helps arrest meaningless rural-urban drift.
This also empowers rural economies in aspects of self-management of rural societies; it builds self-confidence countrywide, so that we produce what one terms the hinterland so that every place in the country becomes an area of productive activity. In doing that, human resource development is very important. It's also important obviously in urban-based activities in both the public and private sectors where you want to equip personnel for future activities. So this has been an area where we have seen increased arrivals by Zimbabweans. We have also encouraged Zimbabweans to look at India as a credible market for knowledge.
For instance, when Bill Gates looks for software professionals, 30 to 35 percent of his software engineers are drawn from India; so that area has seen quite a few arrivals, people coming to study in the short to long term.
Ambassador, the ITEC programme has brought a lot of Zimbabweans, mostly civil servants, to study in India but have we managed to bring them back home after completion of their studies?
Well, I do not know the specifics of each case, but what I have been encouraged by are the emails coming to me because we make an effort that when they do come, they come to their embassy for a briefing and they also brief us on what they would be doing. The feedback that I have received has located those beneficiaries back at their places of work. Yes, there maybe one or two cases, we cannot rule out that, but the majority are going back to serve their country.
India, along with China, is among the fastest growing economies in the World. What lessons can Zimbabwe draw from the Indian experience according to your knowledge of the country?
It is important to note that the stability and affordability of industrial processes in India started at an appropriate level. I mentioned the point that this should be made even more explicit, a level that is appropriate for us, and lessons learnt from this economy are that, as you know people were saying India is poor, India is poor.
Yes, the poverty may still be referred to but it is vital to note that they started where their economy was. Not where the economy of the metropolitan power was. Now, likewise, in my own view, some of the criticism levelled against Zimbabwe is simply because we have looked for our own level.
Where is the indigenous economy? And we have started there because the entry point of our economy is land, its nothing else but land. We have started there, it's a good lesson that India has given to us, they must be commended also for following their own route, with their own endogenous energies, allowing themselves time to polish up what they have started and sticking to it, and so you see the praise coming to them is creditable to them. Of course production is always the answer, it's a secret that is always hidden in public, it's productivity and we have made our entry.
We can now tell Zimbabwean stories of productivity. Because all the stories we have been telling are how this guest in our country has made an entry in this or that area, industrialisation was not possible.
So, I think some of these hiccups that come, growing pains and so forth, they should be accepted as such, people talk of inflation and so forth, but which country has not had inflation? It's a matter of scale, it's a matter of context. Infact this one country in history recorded 3 000 000 percent. So, you know I am not saying we should not attack inflation but our image should not be unduly, our self-image -- which is the most important thing -- should not be unduly affected. We should address the productivity issues which are there, that is the image we need to project.
What role is India playing in the context of the Look East policy in terms of trade and other aspects attendant to that policy?
We feel it is important for us to be here as a mission helping elaborate the Look East Policy. It is a policy that is well committed. India, with its phenomenal growth, has newfound confidence and is positioned to handhold in certain areas. We are much younger than India, in terms of when we got our independence; they got theirs in 1947, and they learnt a few things and they are quite confident now about tackling development.
Their approach is not one of pushing things down others' throats. They offer what they have to offer. They are clear about what they want, but at the same time they have something valuable that we need. As a mission, we feel that we can collect as much information as we can for specialists to look at and see which sector they can apply it to.
When you look at e-government, they have got an exciting e-governance system where the rural folk have access to information on agriculture on seasons, things like that. They have systems in this country, what they call e-health where you can have via satellite you can talk to specialists and you do not have to refer people to far away places.
We have been encouraged by the response that has been coming from home, we have seen many people come, study the market to see what is being sold here and adjusting themselves for the next trade fair.
The benefits that Zimbabwe is getting from our relations includes human resource development, appropriate technology, and SME support.
One of the aspects that have undergone tremendous growth is our knowledge about each other. We encouraged a business delegation to visit India, which they did in 2004 and we have had subsequent visits thereafter, with people discovering exciting possibilities in India as a source market for items they were paying three-times the price over.
A number of Zimbabwean business people came here, and it just happens that one of them was from Zimpapers, and they discovered that they could source printing ink from here and some people feel curious to know agro-technology, and they found that they could access simple machines.
Appropriate technology is here for our SME sector, and even for our heavy industry, it is here -- even for the mining sector. So there has been a growth of interest and traffic in terms of trade between the two countries, on technology items in the food processing, for instance. In other sectors as well, we are looking at the beneficiation of dimension stone for instance granite, the possibilities are here and they have been discovered and we are now exploiting those. So there has been a growth in the volume of tradable goods between the two countries.
Talking of appropriate technology, how much of this have we harnessed for our agricultural sector?
There have been tractors. There is one famous picture of his Excellency, the President, sitting astride a tractor here. Tractors have been coming, and there are other implements that individuals have been importing as well.
Zimbabwe is facing electricity shortages that have been linked to reduced coal production capacity at Hwange Colliery. I understand an Indian company was interested in investing in the coal sector in Zimbabwe, how far has that deal gone?
Several Indian companies are interested, and the initiatives are at various stages, the first stage of course is to visit the country to have a look at what is offered in Zimbabwe, and at least three companies have been there to have a look. There is a company that is already there, Steelmakers, India Coal Limited is actually actively looking at Zimbabwe. It has sent a delegation. In fact the short answer is that there is activity towards finalising the investment decisions.
Zimbabwe is often mischaracterised in foreign media, how is the coverage in India and the perception Indians have of Zimbabwe?
Indian journalists who have written, it is very few who reflect the kind of vicious and tendentious view of Zimbabwe that has been peddled by our detractors. What happens of course is that through syndication, you would have articles from wire services published in India, but you do not see much of an indigenous drive to distort Zimbabwe. You would see articles celebrating the fact that Apollo Tyres, for instance, has made an acquisition of Dunlop Zimbabwe, and the good or bad in the area of sport, you would see articles on cricket and so forth.
India has also invested a lot in human resource development and has a large Diaspora population that is repatriating earnings to develop their home country, have you learnt how they do this and how Zimbabwe can also harness its human resources exports?
Of course there are more Indians than there are Zimbabweans in the world, they have a very activist approach to their Diaspora. They have an annual event that celebrates them, that brings them here. This encourages a system of communal responsibility, where because they have been identified, there is also generosity in highlighting the achievements of Indians in the Diaspora, they praise their people.
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