Zimbabwe has been urged to take advantage of its longstanding cordial relations with Tanzania, which date back to the liberation struggle, in order to strengthen trade and economic cooperation between the two nations.

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Tanzania, Ambassador Hellen Dingani, emphasised that the warm political ties between Harare and Dar es Salaam should now be transformed into tangible economic opportunities.

“We should leverage on our friendship and move that and change it to economic advantage. We should now move forward from just being friends and just smiling politically but now let’s translate it to our economic advantage. In particular, we want to look at tourism, we want to look at agriculture. Zimbabwe is very good in agriculture, and we can actually do a lot with Tanzania, just as far as I see, and also with mining, which are our strong points as Zimbabweans, which we can assist Tanzania in particular, especially agriculture, mining, and tourism,” she said.

With Tanzania being a gateway to Asian and European markets, Zimbabwe can leverage on the political relations to explore export markets.

“I think what I am also aware of is that we do have some companies for Zimbabweans who are operating here in Tanzania, but they are not documented. So, that is what we now want to work on, to see who is here, Zimbabweans, Zimbabwean companies, Zimbabwean consultants, so that we then document who is where,” she added.

Zimbabwe and Tanzania share a lot in common, with Tanzania having provided a safe haven for liberation movements in Southern Africa as a logistical and training base for anti-colonial efforts in the region.