President Truong Tan Sang landed Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar Es Salaam city, Tanzania, on the early morning of March 9 (Vietnam time), starting his State visit to the African country.

President Truong Tan Sang and his spouse

The President, his spouse and delegation were greeted with a traditional dancing and singing performance by Tanzanian artists. An official welcome ceremony will be held at the Tanzanian Presidential Palace.

During his State visit, President Truong Tan Sang is scheduled to hold talks with President John Magufuli, meet with officials from the Tanzanian parliament and the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania (CCM), attend the Vietnam-Tanzania Business Forum, and talk with the Vietnamese community there.

Tanzania is the first leg of President Sang’s African and Middle East tour that also includes Mozambique and Iran.

Vietnam and Tanzania set up their diplomatic ties on February 14, 1965 and many high-level leaders of Tanzania have since made visits to Vietnam.

Tanzania has recognised Vietnam as a market economy.

Bilateral economic cooperation has seen positive development. Two-way trade increased from 156 million USD in 2014 to 204 million USD in 2015. The military-run telecommunication group Viettel is running a joint venture in Tanzania with a total investment of over 700 million USD.

The two countries have signed a number of cooperation agreements, including a trade agreement in 2001, a memorandum of understanding on an agricultural cooperation programme in 2002, and an agreement on economic, trade, scientific and technological cooperation. An inter-governmental committee has been set up with the first meeting held in December 2014.

New development in Vietnam-Tanzania relations

President Truong Tan Sang and his spouse ​were welcomed by the Tanzanian minister of foreign affairs at the airport.

President Truong Tan Sang will seek ways to step up the traditional, multi-dimensional cooperation with Tanzania during his State visit to the African country.

He will look for stronger connectivity, especially in trade, agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications and tourism during the trip from March 9-11.

Regional and international issues of shared concern are expected to crop up at his talks with Tanzanian President John Magufuli.

Vietnam and Tanzania set up their diplomatic ties on February 14, 1965.

In 2014, trade between the two countries hit 156 million USD, 105 million USD of which is from Vietnamese imports, with half going to raw cashews. The figure rose to 204 million USD in 2015.

Tanzania is currently the second largest importer of Vietnamese rice, following the Philippines.

The country licenced Vietnam’s military-run Viettel telecom group to provide a mobile phone service called Halotel since October, 2015.

The trade value, however, remains modest, though the two countries signed a trade agreement in 2001; a cooperation agreement in economics, trade, science and technology in 2004; and an agreement on visa exemption for holders of official and diplomatic passports in 2010.

Tanzania showed its willingness to cooperate with Vietnam in agriculture and aquaculture with Vietnam’s expertise.

It also wished to welcome Vietnamese enterprises’ investment in the manufacturing of small farming machines for local consumption and export.

The two countries are negotiating an agreement on double taxation avoidance.

Cooperation potential between the two countries hasn’t been fully tapped yet, so President Truong Tan Sang’s visit is expected to produce productive ways to boost it.

VNA