Mangaliso Ndlovu, the minister of industry and commerce, told journalists at the launch of the Zimbabwe National Industrial Policy in the capital Harare June 28 that the president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, had met a delegation led by the head of GE's Africa unit Farid Fezoua while visiting Mozambique earlier in the month. 

Zimbabwe's president, said Ndlovu, pitched a number of possible areas in which it felt GE could invest and the company expressed interest in the energy sector, specifically exploration for natural gas; hydro-power generation; and health equipment supply.

"Just to highlight the issues that happened when we were in Mozambique," Ndlovu said, "we thought it was important that we do full exploration on our gas so that we know the resource which we have and this will better guide government as we negotiate for any investments that are coming through. There was an indication that GE will take interest but we also have local players who are indicating that they could assist us with that."

Zimbabwe is thought to have substantial methane reserves in its south and west but exploration has been limited. However, there has been more activity over the past year north of the country where Australia-listed independent, Invictus Energy announced July 1 that its Mzarabani permit holds about 9, 25 trillion ft³ of gas and 300mn barrels of condensate.

GE executive director Lerato Molebatsi was quoted by a government-owned weekly June 30 saying that a team from the company will visit Zimbabwe in the middle of this month to meet officials from the energy and health ministries.