Story by Abigirl Tembo
ZIMBABWE and Tanzania are strengthening economic cooperation, with a renewed focus on trade, investment and regional integration following a high-level diplomatic engagement in Harare.
Tanzania’s top envoy to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Suzane Kaganda, paid a courtesy call on Vice President Colonel (Rtd) Dr Kembo Mohadi, this Wednesday, where the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing bilateral ties.
The engagement underscored the shared goal of expanding economic collaboration and unlocking new opportunities for growth between the two nations.
The discussions focused on enhancing bilateral relations through expanded collaboration in key sectors, including trade, tourism, mining and agriculture.
Ambassador Kaganda said discussions also centred on the Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation (JPCC), which continues to serve as a key platform for advancing bilateral engagements between the two nations.
“Today I had a good moment to discuss some issues of our cooperation with the Vice President Mohadi. Among the issues that we emphasised on is our joint permanent commission cooperation meeting, knowing that we have our bilateral cooperation in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, issues of trade, mining, agriculture, tourism promotion and as we all understand, in implementing our bilateral cooperation we have started a direct flight from Tanzania to Victoria Falls, this is just a way of enhancing our tourism, but also trade and our cooperation,” she said.
The ambassador also highlighted concerns over low trade volumes between the two countries, despite existing cooperation frameworks and investment linkages.
“We need to do more in terms of our businesspeople and also investing. As you understand, Zimbabwe uses our port of Dar es Salaam especially for transporting vehicles, but we do not see many materials and goods. We have investors from Zimbabwe, we have SADCO, which is a Zimbabwean company which has invested in Tanzania. We need to look and see more in agriculture, and also in mining and exchange to increase the volumes of our trades. The transactions are not that pleasing for the brotherly countries, so we need to push more and see that our traders, our investors are putting more effort into that,” Ambassador Kaganda added.
The renewed engagement is expected to pave the way for expanded economic cooperation and increased trade exchanges between Zimbabwe and Tanzania in the coming period.
