India trains 350 Zimbabweans under ITEC program

India has so far trained 350 personnel from Zimbabwe under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program, which is a bilateral arrangement that is meant to develop both the technical and technological competencies of the southern African country.

Indian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ajit Kumar was quoted by Sunday Mail as saying that later on this month, India will also be sponsoring some members of the private sector for an Indian technical software exhibition in Chennai, India.

The ITEC program for Zimbabwe started in 1985 and to date it has extended to cover key personalities in industry.

Kumar said India had extended more than 2 billion U.S. dollars to developing countries and will continue to support Zimbabwe so as to encourage technological development in the country.

"In 1985, this program was extended to the Republic of Zimbabwe in the spirit of post-independent solidarity an in the context of the South to South Cooperation," he said.

"The civilian training program in some of the best institutions of India consists of short- and medium-term courses spanning various fields, including information technology, banking, software applications for the police services, rural development, secretarial and administrative courses and management, among others," said Kumar.

He added that India was the only Asian country to be a full member of the African Capacity Building Foundation and has to date paid 1 million U.S. dollars towards sustainable development and poverty alleviation programs.

Indian firm Global Steel recently invested 400 million U.S. dollars into Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company.

Source: Xinhua