Draft Agreement Tabled as Two Nations Eye Regional Hub Status for Zimbabwe
By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
HARARE — Zimbabwe and Belarus are forging toward a landmark partnership that promises to transform the country into the Southern African Development Community’s leading hub for veterinary vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing, following the presentation of a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries’ key stakeholders.
The proposed deal, valued at approximately USD $50 million, brings together Belarusian veterinary biologics manufacturer BelAgroGen in an arrangement with Zimbabwe’s Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS), representing the Government of Zimbabwe.
The draft MOU, now under review through the appropriate government channels, marks the most significant practical step yet toward realising the bilateral cooperation vision agreed at presidential level between Zimbabwe and Belarus in 2025.
At the heart of the proposed partnership is an ambition that goes beyond a single investment: to position Zimbabwe as the region’s foremost centre for veterinary disease control — manufacturing vaccines and pharmaceuticals not only for Zimbabwe’s own national programmes, but for export across the SADC region.
Southern Africa has long been vulnerable to transboundary animal diseases, with vaccine availability chronically unreliable and heavily import-dependent.
The proposed partnership sets out to change that fundamentally, replacing dependence on distant supply chains with a home-grown, regionally owned production capability based in Zimbabwe.
“This is about Zimbabwe taking the lead in protecting the region’s livestock,” noted Mr Andrei Molchan the Vice President of BelAgroGen.
“We are talking about building something that serves all of Southern Africa — and building it here.”
The proposed investment would be realised progressively, beginning with the immediate support of BelAgroGen‘s registered veterinary vaccines and pharmaceuticals into the Zimbabwean market, advancing through the establishment of local processing and re-packing capability, and culminating in the construction and commissioning of a jointly owned veterinary manufacturing plant on Zimbabwean soil — all within a target period of three years.
Beyond manufacturing, the partnership envisions a substantial human capital dimension: scholarships for Zimbabwean students in Belarus, specialist training in veterinary medicine, vaccine research and biotechnology, and long-term research collaboration with Belarusian scientific institutions.
The objective is to build a generation of Zimbabwean scientists and technicians capable of running, growing, and innovating within a world-class veterinary pharmaceutical industry.
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