Dar-es-Salaam, July 10 (IANS) India and Tanzania on Sunday pledged to broaden cooperation to include areas of potential such as manufacturing, development of small scale industries for rural developmental needs and in food and agricultural sectors.
“The two leaders agreed that it was imperative to broaden cooperation to include potential areas such as gas exploration, manufacturing, development of small scale industries for rural developmental needs, power production and distribution, infrastructure development, agriculture especially in crops like pulses,” said a joint statement issued at the end of high-level talks led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tanzanian President John Magufuli.
Both leaders sought to ensure “greater cooperation” in the area of scientific cooperation between the two countries besides in areas like power production and distribution, gas exploration and usage, mining and information technology.
Recognizing that development partnership is an important facet of bilateral relations, Tanzania side expressed appreciation for India’s continued commitment towards supporting its development efforts through providing technical and capacity building training and extension of developmental projects using grants and concessional credits.
President Magufuli appreciated India’s consistent support in the provision of training slots offered annually to Tanzanian officials and specialists in multiple fields including information technology, entrepreneurship, management, SMEs, rural development, agriculture, defence, and parliamentary studies.
Prime Minister Modi affirmed India’s continued readiness to extend further support towards development objectives of the government of Tanzania in line with its development vision, the joint statement said.
He also announced the donation of a radiation therapy machine ‘Bhabhatron’ to Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza.
The two leaders recognized the growth in vibrancy of people-level relations between the two countries that were encouraged by the introduction of e-tourist visas to Tanzania last year. Subsequently since December 2015, the visa fees for Tanzanian business travelers to India was removed.
The two leaders also jointly announced the holding of a festival of Indian culture in Tanzania within a year.
The Prime Minister conveyed his good wishes for Tanzania’s chairmanship of the East African Community and appreciated the efforts of the Tanzanian President to promote regional cooperation, while the East African country’s leader reiterated his country’s continued support for India as a permanent member of an expanded UN Security Council.
Both the leaders expressed their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stated that there can be no justification for terrorism whatsoever.
They expressed satisfaction on the holding of bilateral counter-terrorism consultations in early-2016, the statement said.
The two leaders recognized positive developments in terms of bilateral trade, investment and collaboration between the businesses in India and Tanzania in various areas and appreciated the contribution of the Indian duty free tariff preference scheme towards boosting considerably Tanzania’s exports to India in recent years, the statement said.
President Magufuli applauded the successful conclusion of the last India Africa Summit held in October 2015. He noted that the many projects that had been executed so far, and those in the pipeline were a direct result of discussions held at India Africa Summits.
Prime Minister Modi extended an invitation to the President of Tanzania to pay a reciprocal visit to India in the future and Magufuli accepted the invitation, it said.
