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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe and Tanzania should encourage players from the private sector to take advantage of investment opportunities in the two countries and actively participate in economic development, President Mnangagwa has said. He said enhancement of bilateral cooperation between Tanzania and Zimbabwe will lead to the enhancement of air connectivity between Harare and Dar-es-Salaam.

President Mnangagwa said this on Tuesday during a dinner he hosted in honour of Tanzanian leader Dr John Pombe Magufuli at State House who was in Harare for a State visit.
President Magufuli left yesterday.

“We must also encourage and nurture the budding investments by the private sectors in our countries, such as the Bakhresa Holdings investment in Blue Ribbon Foods, Seed Co and BankABC, among others. We continue to invite many more private sector players in our two countries to take advantage of the numerous investment opportunities open for them,” said President Mnangagwa.

In 2013, a Tanzanian company, Bakhresa Holdings invested in Blue Ribbon Foods Limited, a development that boosted production and resulted in people being directly employed by the firm.

President Mnangagwa said it was encouraging that air connectivity between Zimbabwe and Tanzania had improved significantly.

“I am optimistic that this renewed cooperation will go a long way towards enhancing general connectivity within our Sadc region and the continent as a whole. I exhort stakeholders in the airline and tourism sectors to ride on this development to jointly package and market our tourist destinations such as Victoria Falls and Kilimanjaro,” said President Mnangagwa.

He said there was need to harness the collective potential in higher education sectors to drive science, technology, innovation, inventions and Information, Communication Technology developments as the two countries accelerated modernisation and industrialisation of their countries.

“Let me at this juncture urge our officials to work hard towards the revival of the Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation as this will facilitate more comprehensive discussions on enhancing our bilateral cooperation,” said President Mnangagwa.

On the political front, President Mnangagwa said there was need for the two governing liberation movements, Zanu-PF and Chama Cha Mapinduzi to continue entrenching democratic practices and prioritise economic development for the benefit of their people.

“However, while we do so, we must never neglect the inculcation of our liberation war heritage and ethos, for the benefit of future generations. It is when we are an ideologically-rooted people, alive to our foundational past that our countries can chart a sustainable and prosperous course for the future.

“In this regard, we are grateful to Tanzania and Chama Cha Mapinduzi for accepting to host the Joint Party School for former liberation movements,” he said.

Zimbabwe and Tanzania enjoy good bilateral relations dating back to the liberation struggle when former president Julius Nyerere assisted Harare to attain its independence.