Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang and Speaker of Tanzania’s National Assembly Job Ndugai have consented to back the enhancement of legislative ties between the two countries.

During their meeting in Dar Es Salaam city on March 10, President Truong Tan Sang congratulated Job Ndugai on his election as Tanzania’s NA Speaker.

The Vietnamese leader expressed his belief that the chief legislator will make constructive contributions to further enhancing the friendship and traditional cooperation between the two countries.

The guest used the occasion to extend his congratulations to the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania over its successes, which, he said, demonstrate Tanzanian people’s confidence in the Party’s leadership over the past half century as well as during the present cause of socio-economic development.

President Truong Tan Sang informed the Speaker about outcomes of his talks with President John Magufuli, during which the two sides agreed to focus their collaboration in agriculture, telecommunications and trade.

Job Ndugai affirmed that Tanzania always regards Vietnam as a close partner and voiced his hope for improved legislative ties through delegation exchanges.

President Truong Tan Sang conveyed Vietnamese NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung’s invitation to the Tanzanian top legislator to visit Vietnam at an early date. The Speaker accepted the invitation with pleasure.

While in Tanzania, the President visited the Vietnamese Embassy’s staff in the East African country.

Hailing the diplomats for their efforts to promote bilateral ties, the leader suggested them studying potential and strengths of Tanzania and other East African countries in order to help Vietnamese businesses expand their operation abroad, and vice versa.

Along with economic links, they should also help with information on potential collaboration in education, health care and national defence industry, he said.

He urged the staff to partner with Tanzanian ministries and agencies to accelerate the signing of trade agreements and prepare for the upcoming meeting of the two countries’ Inter-governmental Committee as well as the opening of the Tanzanian Embassy in Vietnam.

Tanzania is the first leg of President Truong Tan Sang’s African and Middle East tour from March 9-15.

President lauds Tanzania’s economic policies

President Truong Tan Sang hailed Tanzania’s strategic policies on economic development while touring the Benjamin Special Economic Zone in Dar-es-Salaam city on March 10.

Tanzania has initially recorded major achievements in attracting foreign resources and producing goods in service of export to neighbouring countries, the State leader said.

President Truong Tan Sang voiced his support for solutions applied by the Tanzanian Government, saying in the early days of development, Vietnam also met opportunities and difficulties similar to Tanzania’s.

Therefore, he said, Vietnam stands ready to share its experience with Tanzania to help the country gear towards successes.

Treasuring the good sentiments of Tanzanian ministries and agencies towards Vietnam’s military-run telecom group Viettel since its start-up days in Africa, the President expressed his belief that the first project launched by Viettel will help lure more Vietnamese investors to the special economic zone.

Tanzanian Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Charles Mwijag said during 2002-2006, the Tanzanian Government issued various policies to boost the development of industrial and processing zones, and create a legal framework to facilitate the operation of private enterprises.

Domestic and foreign firms have poured over 1.3 billion USD into the processing zones, focusing on garments-textiles, mining and farm produce processing, generating jobs for 36,000 labourers.

The Tanzanian Government is expected to roll out such models on a large scale and woo more foreign investors, including those from Vietnam, he said.

The Benjamin Special Economic Zone houses many important industrial facilities to Tanzania, including plants manufacturing SIM cards for Viettel’s Halotel mobile network.

As part of his State visit to Tanzania, President Truong Tan Sang on March 9 met with the country’s first Vice President and President of its Zanzibar semi - autonomous region Ali Mohammed Shein.

Noting his admiration for Vietnam’s economic achievements, the host said Tanzania and the semi-autonomous region in particular are keen to learn from the Southeast Asian country’s experience in rice cultivation, aquaculture and seafood processing.

Tanzania always welcomes foreign investors, including those from Vietnam, in these sectors.

The President, in reply, said Vietnam is willing to cooperate with Zanzibar in areas of joint potential such as trade, investment, agriculture and telecommunications.

He suggested the two sides mobilise financial resources for agricultural and seafood projects in Zanzibar, and work together to boost cooperation between Zanzibar’s localities and a number of Vietnamese coastal provinces in tourism, agriculture and fisheries.

VNA