Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Ambassador Frederick Shava, yesterday met a Russian business delegation from the Renova Group that is looking for opportunities in the energy sector which could include manufacturing.

The delegation was led by Renova Group director for strategy, Mr Oleg Fomichev.

The business delegation also met Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando to discuss opportunities in the mining sector.

Ambassador Shava said Zimbabwe was keen to improve power generation from solar.

"We have very good weather in Zimbabwe and generally speaking, we have many hours of sunshine in Zimbabwe, which I think is good for us to charge the solar panels, and we look forward to this kind of generation of power."

On his part, Mr Fomichev said the Renova interest was mainly in the solar energy sector.

"We are going to start working on solar because we are the biggest and really the only one producer of solar panels and solar cells in Russia.

"We have our own technology, which is patented, and one of the most efficient electricity. So, we are starting to discuss the possibility of at first, supplying the panels here and then maybe creating the manufacturing facility here.

"If the demand for solar here is big enough, so we can also discuss this possibility," he said.

The delegation also met senior management at Zesa Holdings led by its executive chairman, Dr Sydney Gata.

Zesa spokesperson Dr George Manyaya, said: "Today (yesterday) we were with them at Zesa Holdings where they met the entire executive and executive chairman, Dr (Sydney) Gata.

"Then we took time to do the presentations, showing them the potential and the investment perspectives for Zesa.

"They also gave a presentation on what they offer. Then we went to the manufacturing arm of Zesa Holdings, which is Zesa Enterprises, where we explored the manufacturing factory and showed them the areas of possible investment."