Saturday 3 December 2022

FIRST LADY WOOS RUSSIANS


FIRST Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday met the Russian Federation’s Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, Mrs Natalya Bocharova, and Deputy Director of International Cooperation in the same ministry, Mr Sergey Terashkevich, for in-depth discussions on wide-ranging issues of mutual interest, where her host invited Zimbabwean learners for a special geological expedition in Russia.

So wide-ranging were the issues discussed that they touched on agriculture, education, manufacturing, mining and technology, among many others.

Dr Mnangagwa was accompanied by Mrs Rebecca Kaviya, the director of legal services in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development.

Among projects discussed is the one in the science and technology sector, which came as a result of the cooperation between Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA) and ROSCOSMOS on the peaceful use of space.

This gave birth to the signing of the Joint Research Implementation Agreement between ZINGSA and South West University for the development of ZimSat-2, which the Russians proposed to name Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa SAT in special recognition of the philanthropic work that Amai Mnangagwa is carrying out in Zimbabwe, which has improved the life of vulnerable groups.

Implementation of this project in Zimbabwe will enable the country to meet the challenges of socio-economic development using advanced space services.

“Our geological university came up with the idea of creating a centre of geological resources. It also came up with another idea of creating a special time frame for schoolchildren, so we are now ready to welcome the students from Zimbabwe who will take part in a special geological expedition, which will take place in the south of Russia,” Mrs Bocharova said.

“This is done in order to allow the students to go through some special orientation project and become the students of this university specialising in geology.”

Mr Terashkevich added: “The students will be able to take part in the research in geology. We will be very happy if your Angel of Hope Foundation would also take part in this project by giving us students who are under the foundation. The event will coincide with the Russia-Africa Summit next year.”

The Russia-Africa Summit is a meeting for universities under the Russia-Africa Network.

The network of universities is meant to foster inter-university collaborations and promote education, scientific and technical cooperation, as well as projects that are mutually beneficial to the two countries.

Under this network of universities, Zimbabwe State universities signed agreements under the Russia-Africa Network of Universities.

Mr Terashkevich told Dr Mnangagwa that he would become the Zimbabwe-Russia ambassador in the said expedition.

The Russian Minister asked the First Lady if she had other ideas that Zimbabwe and her country could develop together.

“Thank you very much for this visit to Russia. I see you have a lot for Zimbabwe. Russia has been with us for a long time, since time immemorial, and you have stood by us in all the difficult times that we have come through,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa told her hosts that Zimbabwe’s economy was agro-based. Sunday Mail

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