Belarus empowerment visit sharpens Zim women in business

Tendai Rupapa, Senior Reporter

THE Zimbabwe business delegation drawn from different provinces and consisting of women from various economic spheres, has described the Belarus trip as an eye-opener which has provided them a platform to learn.

The women said they learnt best practices from their counterparts in Belarus and explored prospects for partnerships.

The delegation had been invited and hosted by the Belarusian government and Belarusian women in business.

The hosts were looking at linking Belarusian women and their Zimbabwean counterparts to do business together to enhance co-operation between the two countries and increase the impact of women in economic development.

During the visit, Zimbabwean women came face-to-face with vast business opportunities across many economic sectors that can be exploited for the country’s economic development.

They visited various business entities in the fields of health, agriculture, mining, waste management and banking.

Discussions were held and agreements were secured on how best the two nations could collaborate towards mutual development for women.

Among other organisations visited, the team toured a waste management company and witnessed how the country is making millions out of recycling waste.

They were also briefed on machines that generates electricity using waste.

Cooperation in media will see the Belarus state broadcaster working with media houses in Zimbabwe including ZBC in various areas that include exchange programmes, technology transfer, content sharing and training.

Correspondence banking cooperation in the financial sector, is the conduit that would enable business operations between the two countries and an agreement was reached with BellInvest bank and the Zimbabwe

Women’s Microfinance bank cooperating to enable easy of doing business in transacting and settlements.

The delegation managed to explore the possibilities of collaboration and mutual growth.

Collected waste ready to be sorted for recycling using highly mechanised machinery which also generates electricity from the waste in Belarus

Mr Andrei Kleinov, the representative of Aftrade DMCC and sales director of BiSON Agro Machinery, a service centre for Belarussian machinery in Zimbabwe confirmed that there were immense business opportunities for Zimbabwe in Belarus.

“We were happy to host the delegation as we discussed business opportunities together with Belarusian businesses complimenting Dr Mnangagwa’s vision of women empowerment. We had meetings during the last days where they visited various factories, some owned by women. There are opportunities for cooperation between Zimbabwe and Belarus women in many spheres.

The women can also export agricultural produce in the line of supply of food products from Zimbabwe to Belarus like fruits, vegetables and fruit concentrates,” he said.

Mr Kleinov expressed his admiration of the work being done by Dr Mnangagwa.

“We see that there are plenty ways for cooperation both ways in the export and import. We really support the efforts of the First Lady on the empowerment of women. Here we also have a women’s union which we also linked with the delegation so that we increase women impact in economic development,” he said. The Zimbabwean delegation also visited Belinvestbank where they came up with a roadmap which the parties signed in agreement.

In welcoming the Zimbabwean delegation, chairman of the Board of OJSC Belinvestbank, Oleg Kozaredov, noted that the bank was interested in expanding the geography of partnerships and was ready to implement projects to mutually support women businesses from the two countries.

In addition, Zimbabwe due to its favourable geographical location, joint business projects with Belarus can spread to other countries of the African continent.

The head of the bank emphasised that he respected the active leadership position in developing women’s businesses and supporting them.

“These approaches are close and understandable to Belinvestbank, which today is the centre of attraction for women’s businesses on the Belarusian market,” he said.

Belinvestbank created a structural unit to support and develop women’s businesses.

Ms Victoria Bayran, head of the Center for Support and Development of Women’s Entrepreneurship at Belinvestbank OJSC, spoke about the importance of women empowerment and how financial institutions assist women in their desire to start their own businesses.

So charmed with the visit were members of the business delegation that they thanked the mother of the nation, Amai Mnangagwa for taking them to Belarus.

Media personality Ms Merit Munzwembiri said: “This is a historic moment of learning, our Shona has an adage that says ‘Kugara nhaka huona dzevamwe’ literary translating to mean you can only do better by learning from others, but for one to be able to learn, one has to get a learning opportunity which in this instance was aptly provided by the First Lady through the invitation we got from Belarus.

“By taking women on this trip, shows Amai’s passionate commitment to empower Zimbabwean women and it must be commended and be fully supported. A nation’s identity is shaped by its media and the narrative it gives, so my scope has been widened on how I can help tell the development story for Zimbabwe and the role women must play.

“The fact that a Zimbabwe-Belarus business women conference will be happening on the sidelines of the UN Tourism Gastronomy conference in Victoria Falls is testament of a bigger vision that Amai Mnangagwa has towards bringing equality and inclusion of women in mainstream economy and I feel very humbled by that.”

Mrs Tererai Chigogo, from the agricultural sector said: “In Belarus, we learnt a lot and are going to share with other women back home. We visited many companies which have a range of products that they produce.

“We are very excited because we can partner such big companies and have the opportunity to sell their range of products back home, thus widening choices for our domestic market while also creating employment for thousands of people.

“We can also benefit from skills transfer as our people will learn and adopt best practices being implemented here. We also got a chance to discuss about the possibility of forming partnerships which are crucial for business development in Zimbabwe. This trip was really an eye-opener.”

She added: “As women farmers, we are seeing big things coming through Agric4she from the meetings that we had here in Belarus. We want to penetrate the market and export our agricultural products through value addition and reduce post-harvest losses that we normally experience.”

Mrs Marrybar Bvunzawabaya from Mashonaland East Province, who is in the tourism sector, said waste management practices in Minsk captured her attention.

“The city of Minsky is very clean. As a tourism industry we need to up our game to lure tourists and the environment must be clean. We need to intensify and take seriously the clean-up campaigns being spearheaded by the First Lady, who is the tourism and environment patron to ensure we lure as many tourists as possible.

“Tourists are attracted to clean environments which also bode well for the hospitality industry where food should be prepared in clean environments,” she said.

She added that the visit to Belarus opened her eyes to vast development opportunities capable of ensuring women contributed significantly to the country’s economic development.

“The visit made us believe that as women we can do wonders given that womenfolk in Belarusian firms that we visited occupied over 85 percent of the workforce.

“We will not let our country down by putting into practice what we learnt. I felt greatly challenged to do something for myself and for my country just by seeing what other women were doing,” she said.