DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has held talks with the city of Chicago over a possible twinning with Harare.

Mutambara was in the United States two weeks ago where he held talks with Chicago mayor Richard Daley to see if the Zimbabwean capital can gain sister city status to President Barack Obama’s hometown.

Mutambara said: “What we are trying to do is to showcase Zimbabwe, and say to Chicago, say to Illinois, say to the United States: Zimbabwe is open to business.

"We now have an inclusive government in Zimbabwe, we have brought political stability, we have brought economic stability ... what we want now is investment from Illinois.”

Mutambara said the partnership could involve twining Zimbabwean universities with their Chicago counterparts as well as getting farming expertise from Chicago – the third biggest producer of corn in the United States.

After the meeting, Daley said the two men “shared ideas on how to strengthen the relationship between Chicago and Zimbabwe”.