BabuK
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- Jul 30, 2008
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President John Magufuli
Tanzania and Vietnam yesterday reached a formal agreement to increase two-way bilateral trade by more than three-fold over the next few years, though it remains unclear how the two countries plan to address an existing trade imbalance between them.
Tanzania is currently the second largest importer of Vietnamese rice after the Philippines, while Vietnam’s military-run telecommunications group, Viettel, is running a mobile phone company in Tanzania trading as Halotel, with a total investment of $700 million-plus.
On the other hand, Tanzania mainly exports raw cashew nuts to Vietnam, a country known to be the world’s largest exporter of processed cashew nuts, with a 37 per cent share of the global cashew market.
The deal to further enhance Tanzania-Vietnam trade ties was
announced in Dar es Salaam during a joint media conference held by President John Magufuli and his Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tang San, who is on an official three-day tour of the country. “We have agreed to cement and improve our business relationship. The current business volume between Tanzania and Vietnam is $300m. Our plans are to increase it to $1 billion in a few years,” President Magufuli said.
The state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said in a report yesterday that trade between the two countries grew to $204 million in 2015 from $105 million a year ago.
The two presidents witnessed the signing ceremony of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between Tanzania and Vietnam, which was done by respective ministers. President San is also accompanied by 51 Vietnamese business people on his Africa tour.
Magufuli challenged Tanzanians as a people to emulate the working spirit of their Vietnamese brethren so as to benefit from the country’s abundance of available natural resources, such as lakes and thousands of acres of fertile agricultural land. “Our agricultural exports are too low compared to available resources…we have 21 lakes but we export less fish than the Vietnamese whose fish breed was taken from our own Lake Victoria,” he pointed out, adding that Vietnam has been able to reduce poverty among its citizens by 50 percent through investments in the agricultural and fisheries sectors which Tanzania should strive to emulate.
Magufuli also noted that Tanzania’s cattle population of over 22 million herd makes it second only to Ethiopia in Africa, yet the local leather industry continues to perform poorly.
On his part, the visiting Vietnamese leader declared that the two nations have agreed to work together in the sectors of agriculture, investment, trade and telecommunications.
He said Tanzania was among the first countries to establish a political friendship with Vietnam and the two countries have been supporting each other in various aspects.
“I am impressed with Tanzania’s rapid development progress as it is among the African countries with high economic growth,” he said.
President San also visited the CCM sub-headquarters on Lumumba Street in the city, where he met with the party chairman, retired president Jakaya Kikwete. He also attended a Tanzania-Vietnam business forum.
Today he is expected to tour the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) in the city’s Mabibo suburb and later proceed to Halotel offices in the city.
It is President San’s first official trip in Africa since he became president in 2011. He will leave the country on Friday and proceed to Maputo, Mozambique.
Vietnam and Tanzania first set up diplomatic ties on February 14, 1965.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
